workability 
The workability of compulsory notification would de- 
pend on the general practitioners. Lancet, 1890, II. 21. 
workable (wer'ka-bl), a. [< work + -able.'} 
1. That can be worked, or that is worth work- 
ing: as, a workable mine; workable coal. The 
term workaUe, as applied to coal, has two meaninj^s : one 
refers to the maximum limit of depth, the other to the 
minimum limit of thickness of the bed or beds. In the Re- 
port of the English Royal Commission appointed in 186<i, 
the limit of workable depth was taken as 4.000 feet, that of 
thickness at 1 foot. But no coal has yet been worked to 
so great a depth as that, and it has only very rarely hap- 
pened that a seam of less than 2 feet in thickness has been 
actually mined. 
Clay . . . soft and workable. Ascham, Toiophilus, ii. 
I apprehend that the Commissioners (the English of 
1866] placed the limit of thickness as low as 12 inches be- 
cause their inquiries were not in that connection directed 
to the question what amount of coal would ultimately be 
found commercially workable ; it was the simple physical 
limits which they were chiefly regarding. 
Marshall, Coal ; its Hist, and Uses, p. 307. 
2. F*ractieable ; feasible : as, a workable scheme 
for lighting the streets. — 3. Capable of being 
stirred or influenced. 
These have nimble feet, forward affections, hearts work- 
abU to charity. Rev. T. Adaiiu, Works, II. 410. 
4. Capable of being set at work. 
At the time of taking the last census there were very 
nearly seven millions of wives and children of a workable 
, age still unoccupied. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II. S.'.a 
workableness (wfer'ka-bl-nes), n. Practicable- 
ness ; feasibility. 
That fair trial which alone can test the workableness of 
any new scheme of social life. J. S. Mill, Socialism. 
workaday (w^rk'a-da),n. and a. [Formerly also 
workijilaij. Cf. workday.'] I.f «. A working-day. 
Trade, I cashier thee till to-morrow; friend Onion, for 
thy sake I finish this workiday. 
B. Jotison, Case is Altered, iv. 3. 
We find a great Deference paid U) Saturday Afternoon, 
above the other worky-Days of the Week. 
Bourne's Pop. Aiitiq. (1777X p. 145. 
n. a. Working-day; relating to workdays; 
plodding; toiling. 
Your face shall be tann'd 
Like a sailor's worky-day hand. 
MidtUeton and Rowley, .Spanish Gypsy, iv. 1, 
Work-a-day humanity. 
Dtckens, Uncommercial Traveller, iv. 
This is a workaday, practical world, and ... we must 
face things as they are. The Century, XXXIX. 630. 
work-bag (w^rk'bag), H. A small bag of some 
textile material, formerly carried by women, 
and used to contain their needlework. The 
term was often used for the reticule. 
The lawful fine of the pledged work-hat; of the king's 
wife. O'Curry, Am;. Irish, II. xxlv, 
work-basket (wferk'bas'ket), H. A basket used 
by women either to hold the implements for 
sewing, as needles, thread, scissors, or thimble, 
in which case the basket is small, or to hold 
partly made garments, articles needing repair, 
etc., for whien use the basket is large and has 
a wide opening. 
On the table is . . . Elizabeth's icorkbaskel. 
Rhoda Broughton, Alas, xxxiv. 
work-box (w&rk'boks), n. A box used by wo- 
men to hold their materials for sewing and the 
needlework itself when not too bulky. 
Here, lately shut, that work-box lay ; 
There stood your own embroidery frame. 
F. Locker, The Castle in the Air. 
workday (w6rk'da), n. and a. [< ME. wcrktUii, 
wcrkedei, werkedai, werrkedah, workday, work- 
ing-day, < AS. weorc-dieg (= G. werk-tat/, irtr- 
kel-Uty = Icel. verkdagr); as work + day^.] I. 
«. A working-day; a week-day. 
For a-pon the werkeday 
Men be so bysy in vche way. 
So that for here ocupacyone 
They leue myche of here deuocyone. 
Myre, Instructions for Parish Priests (E. E. T. fi.\ 1. 1005. 
H. a. Of or pertaining to a working-day or 
working-days. 
Allow me my friends, my freedom, my rough compan- 
ions, in their workday clothes. Thackeray, Philip, vi. 
WOrked-off (wfrrkt'of), a. In printing, noting 
a form of type from which a required edition 
has been printed. 
worker (wfer'k^-r), «. [< ME. 'worker, woreker; < 
work + -cr'^ .] 1. One who or that which works ; 
a laborer; a toiler; a performer; a doer. 
false apostles, deceitful workers. 2 Cor. xi. 13. 
Men, ray brothers, men the workers, ever reaping some- 
thing new: 
That which they have done but earnest of the things that 
tliey shall do. Tennyson, Locksley Hall. 
With co-partnership between employer and eniployed, 
the worker would feel he was more nearly the eijual of the 
capitalist. .V. A. Ree.. CXLII. 015. 
6977 
2. Jnentom., the neuter or undeveloped female 
of various social hymenopterous and a few other 
insects, as bees, ants, and termites, which col- 
lects pollen, makes honey, builds or fabricates 
cells or a nest, stores up food, cares for the 
young, herds and milks the aphids kept as cows, 
and perfoi-ms other services for the community 
of which it is a member. Among bees the worker 
is distinguished from the queen and the drone, or the per- 
fect female and male. Among ants certain of the workers 
are specialized and specified as soldiers ; these make war 
and capture slaves. See cuts under Apida, Atta, Mono- 
morium, Termes, and umbrella-ant. 
3t. Maker; creator. 
And therfor in the worcher was the vyce. 
And in the covetour that was so nyce. 
Chaucer, Complaint of Mars, I. 261. 
4. In a carding-machine, one of the urchins, or 
small card-covered cylinders. — 5. A leather- 
workers' two-handled knife, used in scraping 
hides. 
worker-ant (wer'ker-ant), ». A working ant. 
See worker, 2. 
worker-bee (wer'ker-be), n. A working bee. 
See worker, 2. 
worker-bobbin (w6r'k6r-bob'in), h. In lace- 
making, one of the bobbins that are kept pass- 
ing from side to side, as distinguished from a 
hanger-bobbin, the thread of which is left sta- 
tionary while the other threads pass over and 
under it. 
worker-cell (wer'ker-sel), n. One of the cells of 
a honeycomb destined for the larva of a worker- 
bee. Eggs are laid in these first, afterward in 
the drone-cells and queen-cells. 
WOrkfellOW (werk't'd'o), «. One engaged in 
the same work with another. Kom. .\vi. 21. 
work-folk, work-folks (werk'fok, werk'foks), 
H.pl. Persons engaged in manual labor; work- 
people. 
Oversee my ivork-folkg, 
And at tile weeks end pay them all their wages. 
Fletcher {and another). Noble Gentleman, ii. 1. 
workful (w^rk'fiii), a. [< ME. workrol ; < work 
+ -/«/.] Full of activity and work ; laborious; 
indu.strious. [Rare.] 
You saw nothing in Coketown but what was severely 
work/td. Dickens, Hard Times, i. 5. 
workgirl (w^rk'gtrl), ». A girl or young wo- 
man who works or is engaged in some useful 
manual employment. 
There are men and women working perpetually for 
every other possible class, but none for the workyirl. 
Nineteenth Century, XXII. 371. 
In the establishment were seated nine workgirls. 
Lancet, 18!», II. 951. 
work-holder (werk'h61"dtr), H. A device for 
holding a fabric in a convenient jjosition for 
needlework, it consists usually of spring-jaws for 
holding the material, and a clamp for securing the holder 
to the e<l^:e of a table. Compare seu-imj-bird. 
workhouse (werk'hous), H. [< late ME. werke- 
liowse, AS. weorc-hns; as work + housed, «.] 1. 
A house in which work is carried on ; a manu- 
factory. 
Protogenea . . . had his workhouse in a garden out of 
town. Vryden, Obs. on Dufresnoy's Art of Painting. 
But, indeed, that which most surprised me in the Louvre 
was the Attellier or Work-howte of Monsieur Gerardon ; he 
that made Cardinal Richelieu's Tomb, and the Statua 
Ekiuestris designed for the Place de Vendosme. 
Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 43. 
2. A house in which able-bodied paupers are 
compelled to work; a poorhouse. Under the old 
poor-laws of England there was a workhouse in each 
parish, partaking of the character of a bridewell, where 
indigent, vagrant, and idle people were set to work, and 
supplied with food and clothing, or what is termed indoor 
relief. Some Wiirkhouses were used as places of confine- 
ment for rogues and vagabonds, who were there confined 
and compelled to labor; whilst others were large alms- 
houses for the maintenance and support of the poor. In 
the Tnited States the workhouses or poorhouses are some- 
times under the charge of the county, sometimes under 
that of the town or township. 
Our Laws have wisely determin'd that Work-houses are 
the best Hospitals for the Poor who are able to help them- 
selves. StUtinyJleet, Sermons, II. vii. 
A miser who has amassed a million suffers an old friend 
and benefactor to die in a work-house, and camiot be 
questioned before any tribunal. 
Macatday, Gladstone on Church and State. 
This poor old shaking body has to lay herself down 
every night in her tcorkhottse bed by the side of some other 
old woman with whom she may or may not agree. 
Thackeray, On some Carp at Sans Souci. 
workhouse-sheeting (w(:'rk'hous-slie"ting), ». 
Stout twilled cotton cloth, used for the rough- 
est service, and occasionally as a ground for 
eiribroiilery. 
working (wer'king), n. [< ME. werking, werk- 
ijnge, warkynge, worcliiiigc ; verbal n. of work, 
working-man 
^ v.~\ 1. Action; operation: as, the workings ot 
fancy. 
Thei ben square and poynted of here owne kynde, bothe 
aboven and benethen, with outen worchinye of mannes 
bond. MandevUle, Travels, p. 158. 
For mankind they say a Woman was made first, which 
by the working of one of the gods conceiued and brought 
forth children. Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, 1. 95. 
The working of my own mind is the general entertain- 
ment of my life. Steele, Spectator, No. 4. 
The proposition does not strike one ; on the contrary, 
it seems to run opposite to the natural workimjs of causes 
and effects. Sterne, Tristram .Shandy, viii. 5. 
The head which owns this bounteous fall of hazel curls 
is an excellent little thinking machine, most accurate in 
its working. Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, xxxv. 
2. Method of operation ; doing. 
Al his werking nas but fraude and deceit. 
Chaucer, Canon's Yeoman's Tale, 1. 356. 
3. Fermentation: as, the working of yeast. — 
4. pi. The parts of a mine, quarry, or open- 
work in which, or near which, mining or quar- 
rying is actually being carried on. The aban- 
doned portions of a mine are generally designated as 
"old workings," and in Cornwall as the "old man." 
The men hurried from diiferent parts of the workings 
to be out of the way of an impending blast. 
Geikie, Geol. Sketches, i. 
Close to the mouth of the Kennet, gravel has been ex- 
tracted for many yeai-s, as shown by the old workings. 
tiuart. Jour. Geol. Sac, XLVI. 690. 
5. The process which goes on in water when it 
blossoms. See work, r. i., 8 Batch-working, in 
telrg., a system of working in which every station in turn 
sends several (usually five or more) messages at a time, 
before giving place to another station. — Ciosed-clrcuit 
working, that method of operating telegraph-lines in 
which the battery-circuit is always closed througliout the 
line, except when broken by the operation of the seiiding- 
key during the transmission of messages.— Double-cur- 
rent working. See rfoiii^c— Line-current working, 
that method of operation in which the receiving instru- 
ments on a telegraph-circuit are worked directly, without 
the intervention of a relay.— Open-Clrcult working, that 
method of operating a telegraph-circuit in which the bat- 
tery is not in contact with the line between messages, — 
Open working. Same as openwork, 3. — single working, 
in teleg., the sending of messages in one direction only at 
one time. — Up-and-down working, on a telegraph-cir- 
cuit, the transmission of messages alternately between sta- 
tions at the opposite ends of a line. 
working (wer'king), ji. a. [Ppr. of work, t\] 
1. Active; busy. 
I know not her intent; but this I know, 
He has a working brain, is minister 
To all my lady's counsels. 
Ford, Love's Sacrifice, iiL 2. 
He was of a middle stature ; strong sett ; curled haire ; 
a verj- working head, in so much that, walking and medi- 
tating before dinner, he would eate up a penny loafe, not 
knowing that he did it. Aubrey, Lives (Thomas Fuller). 
2. Engaged in physical toil or manual labor as 
a means of livelihood; laboring: as, working 
people. Compare working-man.— 3. Connect- 
ed with the carrying on of some undertaking or 
business : as, working expenses. 
working-beam (wer'king-bem), n. In mach. 
See beam, 2 (i). 
working-class (wcr'king-klas), «. A collective 
name for those who earn their bread by manual 
labor, such as mechanics and laborers : gener- 
ally used in the plural, 
working-day (wer'king-dii), H. and a. l.n. 1. 
Any day on wliich work is ordinarily performed, 
as distinguished from Sundays and holidays. 
D. Pedro. Will you have me, lady'? 
Beat. No, my lord, unless I ndght have another for 
working-days; your grace is too costly to wear every day. 
Shak., Much Ado, ii. 1. 341. 
2. That pai-t of the day which is devoted or 
allotted to work or labor; the period each day 
in which work is actually carried on: as, a work- 
ing-day of eight hours. 
II. fi. Relatingtodayson which work isdone, 
as opposed to Sundays and holidays; hence, 
plodding; laborious. 
O, how full of briers is this working-day world ! 
Shak., As you lAke it, i. 3. 12. 
WOrking-dra'Wing (wer'king-dra'ing), n. A 
drawing or plan, as of the whole or part of 
a structure or machine, drawn to a specified 
scale, and in such detail as to form a guide for 
the construction of the object represented. 
working-face (wer'king-fas), n. See /«(■(>, 
If) (a). 
working-house (wer'king-lious), H. A work- 
shop; a factory. 
In the quick foige antl workimi-house of thought. 
Shak., Hen. V., v., Prol., 1. 23. 
working-man (wer'king-inan). n. A laboring 
man ; one who earns his living by manual laljor. 
-Working-men's party, any political party organized 
in the interests of working-men. Such parties are also 
often called tabor-re/onn parlien. 
