Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 wærcan, 3 warche, 5 werk, 6 warke, 7 warck, 7, 9 warch, 5– wark. [OE. wærcan = ON. verkja, virkja:—OTeut. *werkjan, f. *werki-z: see WARK sb.1] intr. To ache, suffer pain; to throb painfully (In OE. impers. with accus., like L. dolet.)
a. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 272. ʓif hine innan wærce ʓenim niʓes ealað amber fulne [etc.]. Ibid., 318.
a. 1225. Ancr. R. 368. Leste hor heaued aeke [MS. T. warche].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 523/1. Werkyn’, and akyn’ as a soore lymme, doleo, indoleo.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 100. Yit it was a grete mervayle, for for all þis, nowder warkid hur hevud, nor sho lefte not þe labur of hur handis.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., iii. 269. My bonys ar so stark, No wonder if thay wark, ffor I am full old.
c. 1520. Skelton, Magnyf., 1581. I wolde hauke whylest my hede dyd warke.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxiii. 77. For laik of quhilks my heid dois wark and ȝaik.
1674–91. Ray, N. C. Words, Warch, or Wark, to ake, to work.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss.
1841. Hartshorne, Salop. Ant. Gloss., s.v., My corns warchen.
1881. Sargisson, Joe Scoap’s Jurneh, 50 (Cumbld. Gloss.). Me heid warkt as it had niver warkt afooar.
Hence Warking vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
c. 1340. Hampole, Ps. xxxvii. 2. Þin arues ere festid in me: þat is, þi vengaunce, as werkyngis of body and saule.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1238. The souerayn … the kyng with the caupe caste to þe ground, With a warchand wounde thurgh his wedis all. Ibid., 10035.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 523/1. Werkynge, or heede ake, cephalia.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., vi. 8. I haue maide me, in this strete, sore bonys & warkand feete.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VIII. 732. Thai … Wrocht the Sotheroun mony werkand wound. Ibid., 858.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. II. 157. Nocht long eftir, throuch the warking woundes that in the battel he receiuet, he dies. Ibid., II. X. 397.
