(wûrk) noun
1. Continued exertion or activity directed to some purpose or end; especially, manual labor; hence, opportunity for labor; occupation.
2. That upon which labor is expended; an undertaking; task.
3. That which is produced by or as by labor; specifically, an engineering structure; fortification; a design produced with a needle; also, a product of mental labor, as a book or opera.
4. A manufacturing or other industrial establishment: usually in the plural.
5. plural Running gear or machinery, as of a watch.
6. Manner of working, or style of treatment; management; workmanship.
7. plural Moral duties considered as external acts, especially as meritorious.
8. A froth or foam produced by fermentation in making vinegar, etc.
9. A feat or deed.
10. Physics A transference of energy from one body to another, resulting in the motion or displacement of the body acted upon, in the direction of the acting force: it is expressed as the product of the force and the amount of displacement in the line of its action.
—v. worked (Archaic wrought), work·ing v.i.
1. To perform work; labor; toil.
2. To be employed in some trade or business.
3. To perform a function; operate: The machine works well.
4. To prove effective or influential; succeed: His stratagem worked.
5. To move or progress gradually or with difficulty: He worked up in his profession.
6. To become as specified, as by gradual motion: The bolts worked loose.
7. To have some slight improper motion in functioning: The wheel works on the shaft.
8. To move from nervousness or agitation: His features worked with passion.
9. To undergo kneading, hammering, etc.; be shaped: Copper works easily.
10. To ferment.
11. Naut. To labor in a heavy sea so as to loosen seams and fastenings: said of a ship.
—v.t.
12. To cause or bring about; effect; accomplish: to work a miracle.
13. To cause to function; direct the operation of: to work a machine.
14. To make or shape by toil or skill.
15. To prepare, as by manipulating, hammering, etc.: to work dough.
16. To decorate, as with embroidery or inlaid work.
17. To cause to be productive, as by toil: to work a mine.
18. To cause to do work: He works his employees too hard.
19. To cause to be as specified, usually with effort: We worked the timber into position.
20. To make or achieve by effort: He worked his way to the top of his profession; to work one's passage on a ship.
21. To carry on some activity in (an area, etc.); cover: to work a stream for trout.
22. To solve, as a problem in arithmetic.
23. To cause to move from nervousness or excitement: to work one's jaws.
24. To excite; provoke: He worked himself into a passion.
25. To influence or manage, as by insidious means; lead.
26. To cause to ferment.
27. Colloq. To practice trickery upon; cheat; swindle.
28. Colloq. To make use of for one's own purposes; use.
—to work in To put in; insert or be inserted.
—to work off To get rid of, as extra flesh by exercise.
—to work on (or upon)
1. To try to influence or persuade.
2. To influence or affect.
—to work out
1. To make its way out or through.
2. To effect by work or effort; accomplish.
3. To exhaust, as a mineral vein or a subject of inquiry.
4. To discharge, as a debt, by labor rather than by payment of money.
5. To develop; form, as a plan.
6. To solve.
7 a To prove effective or successful. b To result as specified.
—to work up
1. To excite; rouse, as rage or a person to rage.
2. To form or shape by working; develop.
3. To make one's or its way. [OE weorc] Synonyms (noun): achievement, action, business, deed, doing, drudgery, employment, exertion, labor, occupation, performance, product, production, toil. Work is the generic term for any continuous application of energy toward an end; work may be hard or easy. Labor is hard and wearying work; toil is straining and exhausting work. Work is also used for any result or working, physical or mental; as, a work of art; a work of genius. In this connection, work has special uses, which labor and toil do not share. Drudgery is plodding, irksome, and often menial work. See ACT, BUSINESS, PRODUCTION, TASK, TOIL¹. Antonyms: ease, idleness, leisure, recreation, relaxation, repose, rest, vacation.[/OE weorc]

1. A product made from a (specified) material: paperwork, brickwork.
2. Work of a (given) kind: piecework.
3. Work performed in a (specified) place: housework. [<WORK]