Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Performing work.
  • adjective Operating or functioning as required.
  • adjective Having a paying job; employed.
  • adjective Spent at work.
  • adjective Taken while continuing to work.
  • adjective Sufficient to allow action.
  • adjective Adequate for practical use.
  • adjective Serving as a basis or guide for further work.
  • noun The manner in which something operates or functions.
  • noun The parts of a mine or quarry that have been or are being excavated.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In forestry, the harvesting of the final yield under a working plan.
  • noun Nautical, the condition of moving slightly or changing form under the strain of rolling: said of a vessel or any of its structural parts. See work, v. i., 9.
  • noun Action; operation: as, the workings of fancy.
  • noun Method of operation; doing.
  • noun Fermentation: as, the working of yeast.
  • noun plural The parts of a mine, quarry, or openwork in which, or near which, mining or quarrying is actually being carried on.
  • noun The process which goes on in water when it blossoms. See work, v. i., 8.
  • Active; busy.
  • Engaged in physical toil or manual labor as a means of livelihood; laboring: as, working people. Compare working-man.
  • Connected with the carrying on of some undertaking or business: as, working expenses.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • a & n. from work.
  • See Beam, n. 10.
  • the class of people who are engaged in manual labor, or are dependent upon it for support; laborers; operatives; -- chiefly used in the plural.
  • See under Day, n.
  • a drawing, as of the whole or part of a structure, machine, etc., made to a scale, and intended to be followed by the workmen. Working drawings are either general or detail drawings.
  • a house where work is performed; a workhouse.
  • (Mach.) that part of a machine at which the effect required; the point where the useful work is done.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of work.
  • noun usually plural Operation; action.
  • noun Method of operation.
  • noun Fermentation.
  • noun To become full of a vegetable substance.
  • adjective That is or are functioning.
  • adjective That suffices but requires additional work.
  • adjective In paid employment.
  • adjective Of or relating to employment.
  • adjective Enough to allow one to use something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective adequate for practical use; especially sufficient in strength or numbers to accomplish something
  • adjective adopted as a temporary basis for further work
  • adjective (of e.g. a machine) performing or capable of performing
  • adjective actively engaged in paid work
  • adjective serving to permit or facilitate further work or activity
  • noun a mine or quarry that is being or has been worked

Etymologies

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Examples

  • “The editors figured, We're all working really hard, so let's put in a word that means ‘working really hard.'

    languagehat.com: ESQUIVALIENCE, OR RELEASING GIANT TURTLES. 2005

  • “But, ” he added, his voice trembling with indignation, “while I have been contriving and working that my father may have some peace of mind before he dies, —working for the respectability of our family, —you have done all you can to destroy both.

    V. The Cloven Tree. Book V—Wheat and Tares 1917

  • The entering of all these particulars in the log-book is termed _keeping the dead reckoning_, and the working out of the calculations just referred to is called _working up the days work_.

    For Treasure Bound Harry Collingwood 1886

  • The term working through was originally used by Freud to describe the continuing application of analytic work to overcome resistances persisting after the initial interpretation of repressed instinctual impulses.

    Clinical Work with Adolescents Judith Marks Mishne 1986

  • The other thing keep in mind when you use the term working capital is that at principle working capital is really receivables and our growth in receivables right now is to a large degree because of higher revenues, probably concurrency but be that it may.

    unknown title 2011

  • Mubarak said he would serve out the rest of his term working to ensure a "peaceful transfer of power" and carry out amendments to rules on presidential elections.

    Mubarak Tells Egypt He Will Not Seek Re-Election The Huffington Post/AP 2011

  • In a half-way concession to hundreds of thousands of protesters, Mubarak said in Egypt that he would serve out the rest of his term working to ensure a "peaceful transfer of power" and new rules on presidential elections.

    Obama Says Egypt's Transition Must Begin Now By MATTHEW LEE 2011

  • Somber but firm - without an air of defeat - he said he would serve out the rest of his term working "to accomplish the necessary steps for the peaceful transfer of power."

    Mubarak Supporters Clash With Protesters In Cairo By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI 2011

  • Fairbairn earned his moniker working as a cop in the 1920s and 1930s on the Shanghai waterfront.

    Shadow Knights Gary Kamiya 2010

  • Fairbairn earned his moniker working as a cop in the 1920s and 1930s on the Shanghai waterfront.

    Shadow Knights Gary Kamiya 2010

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