work 
To her dear Work she falls; and, as she wrouglit, 
A sweet tYeation followed her hands. 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, iii. 61, 
4. Somothiiig accomplished or done; doing; 
deed; achievement; feat; performance. 
Thei knoulechen wel that the Werkes of Jesu Crist ben 
gode, and his Wordes and his Dedes and his Doutryne by 
his Gospelles weren trewe, and his Meracles also trewe. 
MandeviUe, Travels, p. 134. 
It is a damned and a bloody work; 
Tlie graceless action of a heavy hand. 
If that it be the work of any hand. 
Shak., K. John, iv. 3.58. 
A people of that beastly disposition that they performed 
the most secret worke of Nature in publique view. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 323. 
Once more. 
Act a brave work, call it thy last adventry. 
B. Jonson, Epigrams, cxxxiii. 
It would be easy to multiply illustrations of the differ- 
ence between . . . the philosophy of words and the phi- 
losopliy of iwrks. Macaulay, Lord Bacon. 
5. pi. In thcoL, acts performed in obedience to 
tlie law of God. According to Protestant theology, 
such works would be meritorious only as they constituted 
a perfect and complete observance of the law ; according 
to Roman Catholic theology, such works, if proceeding 
from grace and love, are so far acceptable to God as to be 
truly deserving of an eternal reward. See supererogation. 
And gif I shal werke be hercicerkis to wynne me heuene, 
And for here werkis and for here wyt wende to pyne, 
Thanne wrougte I vnwisly with alle the wyt that I lere I 
Piers Plowman (A), xi. 268. 
For by grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of 
yourselves ; it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man 
should boast. Eph. ii. 9. 
6t. Active operation; action. 
Where pride, fulnesse of bread, and abundance of idle- 
nesse set them on ivorke against God. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 41. 
7. Ferment : trouble. [Rare.] 
Tokay and Coffee cause this Work 
Between the German and the Turk. 
Prior, Alma, ill. 
8. That which is made or manufactured; an 
article, fabric, or structure produced by expen- 
diture of effort or labor of some kind, whether 
physical or mental; a product of nature or art. 
Tlie 7vork some praise, 
And some the architect. Milton, P. L., i. 731. 
Hence, specifically — (a) That which is produced by men- 
tal labor ; a literary or artistic performance ; a composi- 
tion : as, the works of Addison ; the works of Mozart. See 
opiut. 
You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication 
To the great lord. Shak., T. of A., i. 1. 19. 
No other Poet that I know of [save Ben Jonson], in 
those days, gave liis Plays the pompous Title of Works; 
of which Sir John Suckling has taken notice in his Ses- 
sions of the Poets. . . . This puts me in mind of a Dis- 
tick directed by some Poet of that Age to Ken Johnson : 
Pray, tell me, Ben, where does the myst'ry lurk? 
WJiat others call a Piay, you call a Work; 
which was thus answer'd by a Friend of his : 
The Author's Fiiend thus for the Author say's, 
Ben's Plays are Works, when others Wr/rks are Plays. 
Lanjjbaine, Eng. iJramatick Poets (1091). p. 264. 
When I contemplate a modern library, filled with new 
works in all the bravery of rich gilding and binding. 
Irving, Sketcli-Book, p. 165. 
(6) A II engineering structure, as a building, dock, embank- 
ment, bridge, or fortification. 
And now ye Sarrasyns haue taken vp the stones of the 
same tumbeaiid put theym to the werA-cs of theyr Muskey. 
Sir Ii. Gityl/orde, Pylgrymage, p. 52. 
I will be walking on the works. Shak., Othello, iii. 2. 3. 
Pon (iuzman, . . . who commanded the sortie, ought 
to have taken the icork out of hand, and annihilated all 
therein. Kiwjsley, Westward Ho, ix. 
Frail were the works that defended the hold that we held 
with our lives. Tennyson, Defence of Lucknow. 
(c) Design ; pattern ; workmanship. 
Ther ys a gret Clialis of line gold of Curius werke. 
Torkin'jton, Diarie of Eng. Travell, p. 11. 
Let there be three or five fine cupolas in the length of it, 
placed at equal distance, and fine coloured windows of 
several u-orkf. Bacon, Building (ed. 1887). 
All his followers likewise were, in their faces, in part 
or in whole, piiJTited, . . . some with crosses and other 
antick works. Mourt's Journal, in Appendix to New Eng- 
lland's Memorial, p. 355. 
(d) Embroidery; ornamental work done with the needle; 
needlework. 
I am ^lad I have found this napkin. 
... 1 '11 have the work ta'en out. 
And give t lago. Shak., Othello, iii. 3. 296. 
I never saw any thing prettier than this high W(yrk on 
your Point D'espaigne. Ethereye, Man of ilode, iii. 2. 
9. An establinhment for manufacturing, or for 
performing industrial labor of any sort: gener- 
ally in the plm-al, including all the buildings, 
machines, etc., used in the required opera- 
tions: as, iron-H'oW.-.v; hence the plural is used 
as a collective singular, taking then a singular 
article: as, there is a large glass-n'orA^s in the 
town. 
6976 
They have a Salt Work, and with that salt preserve the 
fish they take. Capt. John Smith, Gen. Hist. Virginia 
[(Arber's Eng. Garner, II. 285.) 
Whereupon he gott a patent of the king (Cha, I.) for an 
allum worke (which was the first that ever was in Eng- 
land), which was worth to him two thousand pounds per 
aimum, or better. Aubrey, Lives (Thomas Chaloner). 
10. In meehr. (a) The product of a force by 
the component displacement of its point of 
application in the direction of the force; or, if 
this is variable, the integral of all successive 
infinitesimal such products for any motion of 
the point of application. The work is thus the 
same whatever be the velocity of the motion or the mass 
moved, so long as the force and the displacement are the 
same. Thus, if an electrified body is moved by an elec- 
trical force along a horizontal surface, the work is the 
same whatever the mass of the body moved. But if the 
same electrical force moves the body for the same dis- 
tance but upward against gravity, less work on the whole 
is done, since the force of gravity undoes a part of the 
work which the electrical force i)erforms. Negative 
work, or work undone, is also called resistant work, in con- 
tradistinction to motor work. The total work performed 
upon a particle is equivalent to the kinetic energy it 
gains; the total work undone, to the kinetic energy it 
loses. If a force is resisted by friction, the same amount 
of work is done as if it were not resisted ; for, though 
the resultant force upon the mass moved is less by the 
amount of the friction, so that less work is done upon 
the mass as a whole, yet heat is produced, and the par- 
ticles receive displacements in the direction of the ac- 
tion of friction, the work of which makes up the balance. 
Mechanical work is work done in the displacement of sen- 
sible masses, as opposed to work done in the displacement 
of molecules. If a gun is shot off in a horizontal direc- 
tion, a force is brought to bear upon tlie liullet, and in car- 
rying this a certain distance work proportional to the 
acceleration is performed ; at the same time, the heat of 
the confined gases is reduced by a proportional amount, 
and heat is said to be transformed into mechanical work. 
We have thus arrived at the immensely important con- 
clusion that no heat-engine can convert into work a greater 
fraction of the heat which it receives tlian is expressed 
by the excess of the temperature of reception above that 
of rejection divided by the absolute temperature of re- 
ception. Eiicyc. Brit., XXII. 482. 
{b) The negative of the work as defined above. 
In this sense a ball shot upward is said to do work by re- 
moving itself from the attracting earth. (Both these uses 
of the word work were introduced by C'lausius, first in 
German.] 
11. In jyhysics and chem.y the production of any 
physical or chemical change. For example, if a 
body is heated, the effects are said to be the internal work 
of increasing the kinetic molecular energy — that is, in- 
crease of temperature — of change of volume, cohesive 
elasticity and the external work involved in its expansion, 
and hence overcoming the surrounding atmospheric pres- 
sure. An example of work in the chemical sense is that 
done when a chemical compound is decomposed, as by 
an electrical current in electrolysis. See further under 
energy, 7. 
12. In 'mining, ores before they are cleaned 
and dressed. — 13. pi. The mechanism or ef- 
fective part of some mechanical contrivance, 
such as a watch. — 14. Manner of working; 
management; treatment. 
It is pleasant to see what work our adversaries make 
with this innocent canon : sometimes 'tis a mere forgery 
of hereticks, and sometimes the bishops . . . were not so 
wise as they should have been. Stillingfieet. 
Accommodation works. See accommodation.— AA- 
vanced works, works placed beyond the covered ways 
and glacis of a permanent foi-tifi cation, but in defensive 
relations with it. When placed beyond the range of small 
arms such works are termed detached works.— AgTSi Work, 
an inlay of hard stones, such as agates and carnelians, 
and other costly materials in white marble, made at Agra 
in Kritisli India. — Barellly work, woodwork decorated 
in black and gold lacquer, made in the Northwestern Prov- 
inces of India.— Beaten work. See beaten.— BbtMh 
work, fancy work on canvas in Berlin wools or worsted. 
— Best work. See 6e,s(.— Bone- work. Same as bone- 
lace.— Camiul work, decoration by means of lacipier 
painted with flowers in slight relief on a green ground, 
gold being freely used: from Carnul, or Kurnul, a town 
of India.— Cashmere work, a kind of metal- work in 
which copper or brass is deeply engraved, and the en- 
graved lines are filled wholly or in part with a black com- 
position like niello; small raised fiowers of white metal 
are then applied to the surface in connection with the de- 
sign engraved upon the body of the piece. — Combed-out 
work. Seecomftl.— Covenant of works, i^ee covenant. 
—Damascene work. See (/a^mscp^e. —Day's work. See 
drt.iyi.—DelM work, a variety of Indian embroidery distin- 
guished by a free use of chain-stitch, usually in gold and 
silver mixed with colored silk on colored grounds.— 
Dinged work. See di».(;i.— Drawn and cut work, 
decorative work done upon fine linen or the like by cut- 
ting away parts and pulling out the threads in places : a 
kind of work often associated with cmhroiderj'. In the 
more elaborate sorts, a network of threads is fastened 
down upon a piece of linen lawn, the pattern is stitched 
(usually in buttonhole-stitch) upon the lawn, and after its 
completion the threads of the network and some of those 
of the lawn are pulled out and parts of the lawn cut away. 
—Embossed-velvet work. See rc^fv/.— External work. 
See internal work, below.— False work, i^cc false. 
There are voices and a sound of tools, and we come to 
a wooden staging, ov false work, and climb a short ladder, 
and stand close to the roof among a group of workmen. 
The Century, XXXIX. :>21. 
Fancy, fat, frosted work. See the adjectives.— 
Gnarled work. Same as (;jwirijn<7.— Granulated work. 
See yranu/a(ed.— Hammered work. See Aam»i«ri.— 
workability 
Hlroahima work, fine decorative metal-work made in 
Japan, in which various ornamental appliances are com- 
bined. The name is derived from the town of Hiroshima, 
where much of the finest has been made.— Holbein 
work, a kind of embroidery done in modern times in imi- 
tation of decorative borders and the like shown in paint- 
ings of Holbein and other artists of his time. The design 
is in outline without filling in, and consists of borders 
and other patterns of slight scrolls, zigzags, etc. It is 
worked especially with thread on washable material, 
and has the advantage of showing alike on both sides.— 
Honeycomb work. See honey com b. — Incrusted work. 
See incruM. — Internal work, in physies, work done in or 
among the molecules of a body ui>on change of tempera- 
ture, as in increasing their velocity, changing their relative 
position, etc. : contrasted with external work, that done 
against external forces as the body changes in volume. 
-Irish work. See /mfti.— Lacertlne work. See 
lacertine.—LaAd. work. Seeioyi.- Lap-Jointedwork. 
Same as c?uic/ter- wor*.— Lean, lump, madxas, mechani- 
cal, meshed work. See the qualifying words.- Ma- 
deira work, embroidery in white thread upon lawn or 
cambric, madein the island of Madeira, and of remarkable 
fineness of execution.— MonghVT work, Indian decora- 
tive carving in black elwny, inlaid with ivory.— Mora- 
dabad work, decorative work in metal in which two 
plates of different metals are soldered together and then 
engraved on one side in deep incisions, so as to show the 
one metal through the incisions in the other. In an- 
other variety the incisions are filled in with a black com- 
position similar to niello. — Mother-of-pearl work. 
See mot?ter-of-pearl.— jmo\XJl%e6. WOrk. See mounted.— 
Mjmpuri work, an inlay of wood with brass and other 
metals similar in its character to buhl, practised in India 
in recent times.— Mysore Work, decoration by painting 
in vivid opaque colors on a brilliant ground composed of 
translucent green lacquer laid upon tin-foil. — Niello- 
Work. See niello.— Hulled WOrk. See null.— Out Of 
work, (a) Out of working order. 
There rises a fearful vision of the human race evolving 
machinery which will by and-by throw itself fatally out 
of wfrrk. George Eliot, Theophrastus Such, xvii. 
(6) Without employment: as, he was out of work and 
ill.— Phrygian work. See Phrygian.— Pierced work. 
See j«€rct'rf.— Pitched work. See pitchi .— Plaited 
string work, pounced work, process work, public 
works, tiee plaited, pounced^, etc.— Punctured work. 
See puncture.— "BLaXAed work. See rawfi.— Random 
work. See raTM/orn.- Reisner work (from its inven- 
tor, Reisner, a German of the time of Ix>uis XIV. J, a kind 
of inlaid cabinet-work in which woods of contrasted col- 
ors are employed, designs being formed in woods lighter 
or darker than the ground ; marquetry.— Reticulated 
work. See re^ioKinfcrf.— Rubbed Work. See rub.- 
Russian-tapestry work, rustic work, Saracenic 
work. See liussiaji, etc. — Side of work, in coal-min- 
ing. See man-of-war, 2.— Sikh WOrk, decorative work 
done by the Siklis of northern India, especially embossed 
work in thin copper done with the hanmier and punch.— 
Sindh work, decoration produced by laying upon wood 
several strata of lacquer in different colors, and after- 
ward cutting through the lacquer to various depths, as 
in engraving on onyx.— Spanish work, embroidery of 
simple character, such as that done uiK>n pillow-cases 
and table-cloths: a term of the seventeenth century. 
— Spiritual and corporal works of mercy. See 
mercy. — Stamped work. See stamp. — Swedish worlc 
See Swedish. — Taibulax work. Same as table-work.— 
Tamil work, ornamental metal-work, containing much 
filigree, made in Ceylon, especially in the northern part of 
the island.— Tessellated work. Hee tessellfited.- Tied 
work, a kind of fancy work by which fringes are made of 
worsted, silk, or other fiber or cord. The cords are fas- 
tened and grouped together by a process like netting, 
producing a sort of knotted fringe. — To have one's 
work cut out. (a) To have one's work prepared or pre- 
scribed. (&) To have all that one can do. [Slang.] — To lie 
to one's work. See Ziei.- To make short work of or 
with, (a) To bring to a speedy conclusion ; accomplish at 
once. (6) To deal with or dispose of summarily. 
Mr. Canning made verj' short work of poor Mr. Erskine. 
H. Ada7ns, Gallatin, p. 3d4. 
To run the works. See n*ni.— Turkey work, rugs or 
carpeting brought from the East : the phrase was in use as 
late as the seventeenth century.— Upper works {naut.). 
Same as dead-works.— "VieJUlSL WOrk, decorative work 
in leather, including ornamental utensils of that mate- 
rial, with patterns in slight relief and impressed.— Vlaa- 
gapatam work, an inlay of ivory, horn, and other mate- 
rials in wood. The work is on a small scale, and is applied 
to the decoi-ation of movable furniture, tea-caddies, chess- 
boards, etc. — Work and turn, in printing, a form of 
type arranged to print two copies by turning the sheet. — 
Work of art. See art-'.— Works of supererogation. 
See supererogation. (See alst) gingerbread -work, pique- 
work, spider-icork.)=^yn. 1. Work, Labor, Toil, Drudgery, 
occupation, exertion, business. Work is thegeneric term 
for exertion of l>ody or mind : it stands aUo for the prod- 
uct of such exertion, while the others do not. Labor is 
heavier; the word may be qualified by strong adjectives: 
as, confinement at hard /fi!*or. Wemay speak of light trorl-, 
but not of light labor. ToU is still heavier, necessarily in- 
volving weariness, as labor does not Drudgery is heavy, 
monotonous labor of a servile sort. 
All icork, even cotton-spinning, is noble. 
Carlyle, Past and Present, iii. 4. 
He had been so far that he almost despair'd of getting 
back again; for a Man cannot pass thro those red Man- 
groves but with very much labour. 
Dampier, Voyages, I. 156. 
With burden of our armour here we sweat. 
This toil of oui-s should be a work of thine. 
Shak.,K. John. ii. 1. 93. 
Tlie every-day cares and duties which men call drudg- 
ery are the weights and counterpoises of the clock of time. 
Longfellow, Kavanagh, xiii. 
workability (w^r-ka-bil'i-ti), n. [< workable 
+ -ittf (see -biJity).]' Practicability; feasible- 
