1. (n.) Exertion of strength or faculties; physical or intellectual effort directed to an end; industrial activity; toil; employment; sometimes, specifically, physically labor.

2. (n.) The matter on which one is at work; that upon which one spends labor; material for working upon; subject of exertion; the thing occupying one; business; duty; as, to take up one's work; to drop one's work.

3. (n.) That which is produced as the result of labor; anything accomplished by exertion or toil; product; performance; fabric; manufacture; in a more general sense, act, deed, service, effect, result, achievement, feat.

4. (n.) Specifically: (a) That which is produced by mental labor; a composition; a book; as, a work, or the works, of Addison. (b) Flowers, figures, or the like, wrought with the needle; embroidery.

5. (n.) Structures in civil, military, or naval engineering, as docks, bridges, embankments, trenches, fortifications, and the like; also, the structures and grounds of a manufacturing establishment; as, iron works; locomotive works; gas works.

6. (n.) The moving parts of a mechanism; as, the works of a watch.

7. (n.) Manner of working; management; treatment; as, unskillful work spoiled the effect.

8. (n.) The causing of motion against a resisting force. The amount of work is proportioned to, and is measured by, the product of the force into the amount of motion along the direction of the force. See Conservation of energy, under Conservation, Unit of work, under Unit, also Foot pound, Horse power, Poundal, and Erg.

9. (n.) Ore before it is dressed.

10. (n.) Performance of moral duties; righteous conduct.

11. (n.) 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.

12. (n.) Hence, in a general sense, to operate; to act; to perform; as, a machine works well.

13. (n.) Hence, figuratively, to be effective; to have effect or influence; to conduce.

14. (n.) To carry on business; to be engaged or employed customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor; to toil.

15. (n.) 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.

16. (n.) 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.

17. (n.) To ferment, as a liquid.

18. (n.) To act or operate on the stomach and bowels, as a cathartic.

19. (v. t.) To labor or operate upon; to give exertion and effort to; to prepare for use, or to utilize, by labor.

20. (v. t.) To produce or form by labor; to bring forth by exertion or toil; to accomplish; to originate; to effect; as, to work wood or iron into a form desired, or into a utensil; to work cotton or wool into cloth.

21. (v. t.) To produce by slow degrees, or as if laboriously; to bring gradually into any state by action or motion.

22. (v. t.) To influence by acting upon; to prevail upon; to manage; to lead.

23. (v. t.) To form with a needle and thread or yarn; especially, to embroider; as, to work muslin.

24. (v. t.) To set in motion or action; to direct the action of; to keep at work; to govern; to manage; as, to work a machine.

25. (v. t.) To cause to ferment, as liquor.

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