| Library / English Dictionary |
WORK AT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
To exert effort in order to do, make, or perform something
Example:
the child worked at the multiplication table until she had it down cold
Synonyms:
work at; work on
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "work at" is one way to...):
work (exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose or out of necessity)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "work at"):
belabor; belabour (to work at or to absurd length)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Context examples:
And if any traveller hath a curiosity to see the whole work at large, as it came from the hands of the author, I will be ready to gratify him.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Functional Assessment of Multiple Sclerosis (FAMS) General Contentment: My work (include work at home) is fulfilling.
(FAMS - My Work is Fulfilling, NCI Thesaurus)
A question about whether an individual is or was concerned about keeping their job including their work at home.
(Concerned About Keeping My Job, Including Work at Home, NCI Thesaurus)
Mother will keep me to my chamber for a month, and make me work at the tapestry of the nine bold knights.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"I'm tired of it and mean to go to work at something right off."
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Though it was already eight o'clock (late breakfasts had followed naturally upon cessation of the steady work at mining) a candle in the neck of a bottle lighted the meal.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
There was no pulling and hauling on sheets and tackles, no shifting of topsails, no work at all for the sailors to do except to steer.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
His work at the anvil had developed his arms to their utmost, and his healthy country living gave a sleek gloss to his ivory skin, which shone in the lamplight.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His reasons for destroying the busts were still unknown, and he refused to answer any questions upon the subject, but the police had discovered that these same busts might very well have been made by his own hands, since he was engaged in this class of work at the establishment of Gelder & Co.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
