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6 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Work \Work\ (w[^u]rk), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Worked} (w[^u]rkt),
or {Wrought} (r[add]t); p. pr. & vb. n. {Working}.] [AS.
wyrcean (imp. worthe, wrohte, p. p. geworht, gewroht); akin
to OFries. werka, wirka, OS. wirkian, D. werken, G. wirken,
Icel. verka, yrkja, orka, Goth. wa['u]rkjan. [root]145. See
{Work}, n.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To exert one's self for a purpose; to put forth effort for
the attainment of an object; to labor; to be engaged in
the performance of a task, a duty, or the like.
[1913 Webster]
O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
To match thy goodness? --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw
be given you. --Ex. v. 18.
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Whether we work or play, or sleep or wake,
Our life doth pass. --Sir J.
Davies.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence, in a general sense, to operate; to act; to perform;
as, a machine works well.
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We bend to that the working of the heart. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. Hence, figuratively, to be effective; to have effect or
influence; to conduce.
[1913 Webster]
We know that all things work together for good to
them that love God. --Rom. viii.
28.
[1913 Webster]
This so wrought upon the child, that afterwards he
desired to be taught. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
She marveled how she could ever have been wrought
upon to marry him. --Hawthorne.
[1913 Webster]
4. To carry on business; to be engaged or employed
customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor;
to toil.
[1913 Webster]
They that work in fine flax . . . shall be
confounded. --Isa. xix. 9.
[1913 Webster]
5. To be in a state of severe exertion, or as if in such a
state; to be tossed or agitated; to move heavily; to
strain; to labor; as, a ship works in a heavy sea.
[1913 Webster]
Confused with working sands and rolling waves.
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
6. To make one's way slowly and with difficulty; to move or
penetrate laboriously; to proceed with effort; -- with a
following preposition, as down, out, into, up, through,
and the like; as, scheme works out by degrees; to work
into the earth.
[1913 Webster]
Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
Proportioned to each kind. --Milton.
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7. To ferment, as a liquid.
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The working of beer when the barm is put in.
--Bacon.
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8. To act or operate on the stomach and bowels, as a
cathartic.
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Purges . . . work best, that is, cause the blood so
to do, . . . in warm weather or in a warm room.
--Grew.
[1913 Webster]
[1913 Webster]
{To work at}, to be engaged in or upon; to be employed in.
{To work to windward} (Naut.), to sail or ply against the
wind; to tack to windward. --Mar. Dict.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Wrought \Wrought\,
imp. & p. p. of {Work}; as, What hath God wrought?.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In 1837, Samuel F. B. Morse, an American artist,
devised a working electric telegraph, based on a rough
knowledge of electrical circuits, electromagnetic
induction coils, and a scheme to encode alphabetic
letters. He and his collaborators and backers
campaigned for years before persuading the federal
government to fund a demonstration. Finally, on May 24,
1844, they sent the first official long-distance
telegraphic message in Morse code, "What hath God
wrought," through a copper wire strung between
Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. The phrase
was taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23. It had been
suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the young
daughter of a friend. --Library of Congress, American
Memories series
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may24.html).
[PJC]
Alas that I was wrought [created]! --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The word wrought is sometimes assumed to be the past
tense of wreak, as the phrases
{wreak havoc} and
{wrought havoc} are both commonly used. In fact,
{wrought havoc} is not as common as
{wreaked havoc}. Whether wrought is considered as the past
tense of wreak or of work,
{wrought havoc} has essentially the same meaning, encouraging
the confusion. Etymologically, however, wrought is only
the past tense of work.
[PJC]
Wrought and wreaked havoc
Recently, we mentioned that something had wreaked
havoc with our PC. We were fairly quickly corrected
by someone who said, "Shouldn't that be wrought
havoc?" The answer is no, because either wreaked or
wrought is fine here. A misconception often arises
because wrought is wrongly assumed to be the past
participle of wreak. In fact wrought is the past
participle of an early version of the word work!
Wreak comes from Old English wrecan "drive out,
punish, avenge", which derives ultimately from the
Indo-European root *wreg- "push, shove, drive, track
down". Latin urgere "to urge" comes from the same
source, giving English urge. Interestingly, wreak is
also related to wrack and wreck. The phrase wreak
havoc was first used by Agatha Christie in 1923.
Wrought, on the other hand, arose in the 13th
century as the past participle of wirchen, Old
English for "work". In the 15th century worked came
into use as the past participle of work, but wrought
survived in such phrases as finely-wrought,
hand-wrought, and, of course, wrought havoc . . . .
Havoc, by the way, comes from Anglo-French havok,
which derived from the phrase crier havot "to cry
havoc". This meant "to give the army the order to
begin seizing spoil, or to pillage". It is thought
that this exclamation was Germanic in origin, but
that's all that anyone will say about it! The
destruction associated with pillaging came to be
applied metaphorically to havoc, giving the word its
current meaning.
--The
Institute for
Etymological
Research and
Education
(http://www.takeourword.com/Issue048.html)
[PJC]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Wrought \Wrought\, a.
1. Worked; elaborated; not rough or crude.
[1913 Webster]
2. Shaped by beating with a hammer; as, wrought iron.
[PJC]
{Wrought iron}. See under {Iron}.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
wrought
adj : shaped to fit by or as if by altering the contours of a
pliable mass (as by work or effort); "a shaped
handgrip"; "the molded steel plates"; "the wrought
silver bracelet" [syn: {shaped}, {molded}]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
work
n 1: activity directed toward making or doing something; "she
checked several points needing further work"
2: a product produced or accomplished through the effort or
activity or agency of a person or thing; "it is not
regarded as one of his more memorable works"; "the
symphony was hailed as an ingenious work"; "he was
indebted to the pioneering work of John Dewey"; "the work
of an active imagination"; "erosion is the work of wind or
water over time" [syn: {piece of work}]
3: the occupation for which you are paid; "he is looking for
employment"; "a lot of people are out of work" [syn: {employment}]
4: applying the mind to learning and understanding a subject
(especially by reading); "mastering a second language
requires a lot of work"; "no schools offer graduate study
in interior design" [syn: {study}]
5: the total output of a writer or artist (or a substantial
part of it); "he studied the entire Wagnerian oeuvre";
"Picasso's work can be divided into periods" [syn: {oeuvre},
{body of work}]
6: a place where work is done; "he arrived at work early today"
[syn: {workplace}]
7: (physics) a manifestation of energy; the transfer of energy
from one physical system to another expressed as the
product of a force and the distance through which it moves
a body in the direction of that force; "work equals force
times distance"
v 1: exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose
or out of necessity; "I will work hard to improve my
grades"; "she worked hard for better living conditions
for the poor" [ant: {idle}]
2: be employed; "Is your husband working again?"; "My wife
never worked"; "Do you want to work after the age of 60?";
"She never did any work because she inherited a lot of
money"; "She works as a waitress to put herself through
college" [syn: {do work}]
3: have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or
expected; "The voting process doesn't work as well as
people thought"; "How does your idea work in practice?";
"This method doesn't work"; "The breaks of my new car act
quickly"; "The medicine works only if you take it with a
lot of water" [syn: {act}]
4: perform as expected when applied; "The washing machine won't
go unless it's plugged in"; "Does this old car still run
well?"; "This old radio doesn't work anymore" [syn: {function},
{operate}, {go}, {run}] [ant: {malfunction}]
5: shape, form, or improve a material; "work stone into tools";
"process iron"; "work the metal" [syn: {work on}, {process}]
6: give a work-out to; "Some parents exercise their infants";
"My personal trainer works me hard"; "work one's muscles"
[syn: {exercise}, {work out}]
7: proceed along a path; "work one's way through the crowd";
"make one's way into the forest" [syn: {make}]
8: operate in a certain place, area, or specialty; "She works
the night clubs"; "The salesman works the Midwest"; "This
artist works mostly in acrylics"
9: proceed towards a goal or along a path or through an
activity; "work your way through every problem or task";
"She was working on her second martini when the guests
arrived"; "Start from the bottom and work towards the top"
10: move in an agitated manner; "His fingers worked with
tension"
11: cause to happen or to occur as a consequence; "I cannot work
a miracle"; "wreak havoc"; "bring comments"; "play a
joke"; "The rain brought relief to the drought-stricken
area" [syn: {bring}, {play}, {wreak}, {make for}]
12: cause to work; "he is working his servants hard" [syn: {put
to work}]
13: prepare for crops; "Work the soil"; "cultivate the land"
[syn: {cultivate}, {crop}]
14: behave in a certain way when handled; "This dough does not
work easily"; "The soft metal works well"
15: have and exert influence or effect; "The artist's work
influenced the young painter"; "She worked on her friends
to support the political candidate" [syn: {influence}, {act
upon}]
16: operate in or through; "Work the phones"
17: cause to operate or function; "This pilot works the
controls"; "Can you work an electric drill?"
18: provoke or excite; "The rock musician worked the crowd of
young girls into a frenzy"
19: gratify and charm, usually in order to influence; "the
political candidate worked the crowds"
20: make something, usually for a specific function; "She molded
the riceballs carefully"; "Form cylinders from the
dough"; "shape a figure"; "Work the metal into a sword"
[syn: {shape}, {form}, {mold}, {mould}, {forge}]
21: move into or onto; "work the raisins into the dough"; "the
student worked a few jokes into his presentation"; "work
the body onto the flatbed truck"
22: make uniform; "knead dough"; "work the clay until it is
soft" [syn: {knead}]
23: use or manipulate to one's advantage; "He exploit the new
taxation system"; "She knows how to work the system"; "he
works his parents for sympathy" [syn: {exploit}]
24: find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand
the meaning of; "did you solve the problem?"; "Work out
your problems with the boss"; "this unpleasant situation
isn't going to work itself out"; "did you get it?"; "Did
you get my meaning?"; "He could not work the math
problem" [syn: {solve}, {work out}, {figure out}, {puzzle
out}, {lick}]
25: cause to undergo fermentation; "We ferment the grapes for a
very long time to achieve high alcohol content"; "The
vintner worked the wine in big oak vats" [syn: {ferment}]
26: go sour or spoil; "The milk has soured"; "The wine worked";
"The cream has turned--we have to throw it out" [syn: {sour},
{turn}, {ferment}]
27: arrive at a certain condition through repeated motion; "The
stitches of the hem worked loose after she wore the skirt
many times"
[also: {wrought}]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
wrought
See {work}
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