Work v.

Pa. t. and pple. worked, arch. and techn. wrought. Forms: see below. [(1) OE. wyrcan, pa. t. worhte, pa. pple. ʓeworht, = OS. workian, OHG. wurchen, worhta, wurhta, giworht, gewurchet (MHG. wurken, würken, worhte, geworht, gewürket), ON. yrkja, orta, ortr, Goth. waurkjan, waurhta, -waurhts:—OTeut. *wurkjan, *wurχt-; (2) OE. (Mercian) wircan, = OFris. werkia, wirza, wrochte, wrocht, OS. wirkian, war(a)hta, war(a)ht, OHG. wirchen, warahta (MHG. wirken, warhte, G. wirken, wirkte, gewirkt), ON. verkja, virkja to feel pain:—OTeut. *werkjan, *warχt- (*wurχt-). A third OE. type represented by late wercan, weorc(e)an seems to point to early influence of the sb. we(o)rc (see WORK sb.) upon the vowel of the vb.

  Other Teut. forms are OFris. werka, OS. -werkon, (-werkot), (M)Du., M(LG.) werken, (wrochte, etc.), OHG. werchôn (MHG. werchen, werken), ON. verka (-að) in certain technical uses, orka to manage, effect, contrive (Sw. verka to do, perform, virka to crochet, Da. virke to operate, act, weave, etc.).

  The Indo-Eur. base worg-, werg-, wṛg- is represented outside Germanic by Zend vərəzyeiti he works, Gr. ἔρδω (:—*wergjō), ῥέζω (:—*wṛgjō) I do, perf. ἔοργα, ὄργανον ORGAN, ὄργιον ORGY, OIr. fairged they made, do-fairci prepares, and the forms s.v. WARK sb. and v., and WORK sb.

  The normal representative of OE. wyrcan would be *worch (for the vocalism cf. worm, worse, wort); the substitution of k for ch, producing the modern standard form, is shown in north-midland areas c. 1200, and is due mainly to WORK sb., though Scandinavian influence (see various forms above) is possible.

  The new pa. t. and pa. pple. worked, formed directly on the inf. stem, became established in the 15th century; it is now the normal form except in archaic usage (in which the older form wrought may appear in any sense), and in senses that denote fashioning, shaping or decorating with the hand or an implement: see WROUGHT.]

  A.  Illustration of Forms.

  1.  Inf. and Pres.-stem. α. 1 wyrc(e)an, (wyricean), 2–3 wurchen, (3 wrchen, wuerche, wourche), 3–6 wurche, 5–6 wurch. β. 1 wirc(e)an, 3–5 wirche(n, 4–6 wyrche, 5 wyrch, wirch, (whirche), 9. dial. wirtch. γ. 1 weorcean, wercan, (2 imper. wrec), 2–4 werchen, (3 werechen), 3–5 werche. δ. 3–6 worch(e, (4 worsche, 6 arch. woorchen).

  α.  c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. iii. 2. Hreonisse doas vel wyrcas. Ibid., xxi. 28. Wuirc in winʓeard minne.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 75. Þæt we sceolan god weorc wyricean.

c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 264. Hu mon læcedomas wiþ þon wyrcean scyle.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 109. On monie wisen mon mei wurchen elmessan.

c. 1200.  wuerche [see B. 3 d].

c. 1205.  Lay., 1547. Scaðe were wrchen.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 408 (Jesus MS.). He wile of bore wurche [Cott. wrchen] bareh.

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 24. With feyth truly for to wurch.

1538.  Bale, Thre Lawes, 1382. In Gods seruyce they honourablye wurche.

  β.  c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, xiv. 2. Se … wirceð rehtwisnisse.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 722 (Cott. MS.). Clerkes ginneþ songes wirche.

13[?].  Northern Passion, 1354. Alle the bettyr þey myghte wyrche.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 6659–65. He bad wirken whanne that neede is…. Seynt Poule that loued al hooly chirche He bade thappostles forto wirche And wynnen her lyflode … And seide wirketh with youre honden.

c. 1420.  Chron. Vilod., 344. Elburwe þat religyose house let after whirche.

a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 45. Þe place wher arsenek is putte in, if it wirch perfitely, shal bycome blo & bolned.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., II. xiii. 222. Forto … wirche holi deedis.

15[?].  Merch. & Son, 200, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 146. He made hym evyn with every man, as far as he cowde wyrche.

1847.  Halliwell, Wirtch, to ache. North.

  γ.  971.  Blickl. Hom., 67. Þæt þu scealt … Godes willan wercan.

c. 1000.  Rule of Chrodegang, xvii. Þonne hi ne þurfon ʓemæne worc weorcean, wirce ælc sum þing þæs þe his aʓen neod sy.

a. 1275.  Cott. Hom., 225. Wrec þe me an arc.

c. 1200.  wercheð [see B. 21].

c. 1275.  Lay., 12167. Ich wolle werechen after þine willen.

c. 1460.  werche [see B. 1 c].

  δ.  c. 1275.  XI Pains of Hell, 310, in O. E. Misc., 220. Wo-so-euer wil halou þis sununday Wele and worch it ful, as I ȝoue say.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 84. Wymmen with childe þat worchen ne mowen.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 123. Þei wolen not … worsche aftir good conscience.

c. 1400.  R. Glonc. Chron. (Rolls), App. xx. 94. Hi þoute wourche wo.

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 8. Crist grawnt us grace truly to worch.

1566.  Drant, Horace, Sat., VIII. 6. To woorchen all our will.

1865.  Waugh, Lancs. Songs, 24. When a mon’s honestly willin’ To wortch.

  ε.  3 (Orm.) wirrkenn, 4 wirc, wirck(e, wirkke, wyrkke, wyre, (wrick, wrik, wryk, Sc. vyrk), 4–6 wirke, wyrk(e, Sc. virk, 4–6, 8 Sc. wirk, 5 wirken, 5–6 wyrcke. ζ. 3–6 werke, 4 werc, werkke, werken, 5–6 werk, (6 weorke). η. 4–7 worke, 6 woorke, wurk, Sc. vurk, 7 worck, 6– work. θ. 5–6 warke, 9 dial. wark.

  ε.  c. 1200.  Ormin, 10118. To wirrkenn allmess werrkess.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1229. To wrik þare wik wil. Ibid., 2200. To wyrk wondres. Ibid., 25251. Þi will to wirc.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 5001. How þey schuld wyrke.

c. 1375.  Lay Folks Mass Bk. (MS. B.), 4. Þo bokes of holy kyrc, þat holy men … con wyrc.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xix. (Christopher), 79. To wryk in ws his wekit pouste.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, V. 488. He thoucht to virk with slicht.

a. 1400.  Morte Arth., 1468. Fulle graythelye he wyrkkes.

c. 1400.  wirken [see 1 β].

1530.  Palsgr., 783/1. I wyrke…. Declared in ‘I worke.’

1549.  Compl. Scot., i. 21. The iugement of gode (quhilk virkis al thyng).

1550.  Crowley, Last Trumpet, 482. For to wyrcke.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., IX. (S.T.S.), II. 201. Feireng … that Angus suld wirk thame sum … iniure.

  ζ.  c. 1220.  werkeð [see B. 10].

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 14704. Þe werckes þat i werc.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Can. Yeom. T., 1477. As for to werken any thyng in contrarie.

c. 1450.  Holland, Howlat, 785. He couth werk wounderis.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 136 b. It can werke no effect.

1553.  Respublica, 86. Avaryce maie woorke factes.

  η.  1340.  Ayenb., 206. Alneway workinde.

14[?].  Sir Beues, 1798 (Pynson). Lat god worke what his wol is.

1546.  St. Papers Hen. VIII., XI. 225. I will do what I can … then must Godd worcke.

1551.  Crowley, Pleas. & Payne, Ded. 108. The Lorde work in the hertis of the rych.

1570.  G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 9. Matter … for them to wurk uppon.

1581.  Satir. Poems Reform., xliv. 368. Destroy the block, That vurkis thir Turkis aganis the.

1596.  Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 634/1. Divine powers which should woorke vengeaunce on perjurours.

1625.  in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1909), III. 52. Thus wee fell to it againe, discharging our broadsides as fast as wee coulde laied them and worck them.

1645.  in N. & Q., 12th Ser. IX. 223/2. Paid for brick to worke up the wall of the Channcell.

  θ.  c. 1450–1530.  Myrr. our Ladye, I. xiii. 35. The handes warke.

a. 1529.  Skelton, P. Sparowe, 799. Whereat they barke, And mar all they warke.

1880.  Mrs. Parr, Adam & Eve, II. 143. I’ll bet a guinea to a brass farden but, if ’tis to be done, he’ll wark the oracle for me.

  2.  Pa. t. α. 1–3 worhte (1 worohte, uorhte); 1–4 wrohte, (3 wrocte, Orm. wrohhte), 3–4 wrouht(e, 3–5 wroȝt(e, 3–6 wrouȝt(e, wrout(e, wroght, 4 wroghte, wroht, wrowht, (wroth), 4–5 wroughte, Sc. wroucht, 4–6 Sc. wrocht, (vrocht), 5 wrowȝte, wrowt, (wrouth), 6 wrowght, 5– wrought. β. 1–2 warhte; 3 wrahte, wrauhte, 3–4 wraȝte, 4 wraht, 5 Sc. wraucht, 6 wraught.

  α.  c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., John ix. 6. Uorhte lam of dæm spadle.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 19. Hælend … þæt wundor worhte.

1056–66.  Inscr. on Dial. Kirkdale Ch., Yks. Haward me wrohte.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 2256. Godd … Þatt alle shaffte wrohhte.

c. 1205.  Lay., 12024. He harm worhte.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 258. Þe þet wrouhte þe eorðe.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 156. His miȝt … ðe wroutis [= wrought them] on ðe ferðe day! Ibid., 230. It ne wrocte him neuere a del.

a. 1300.  in Anecd. Lit. (1844), 91. Thenk, mon, werof Crist the wroute.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 362. First þan wroght he angel kind.

13[?].  Northern Passion, 1367 (MS. Camb. Gg.). Þei wrothin hit wit maistrie.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 3694. I wrouȝt nouȝt þe best.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XVIII. 158. Johne wroucht syne sa vittely.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Monk’s T., 403. Ful many an hethen wroghtestow ful wo.

c. 1400.  Parce Michi, 53, in 26 Pol. Poems, 144. In youthe I wrought folyes fele.

c. 1400.  Apol. Loll., 106. Þe apostil wrowt wiþ his handis þingis able to mannis vse.

c. 1425.  Cast. Persev., 3277, in Macro Plays, 174. Wheyþer he wrouth wel or wyckydnesse.

a. 1529.  Skelton, Wofully Araid, 49. Y wrouȝt the, I bowgȝt the frome eternal fyre.

1533.  Gau, Richt Vay (S.T.S.), 39. The halie spreit vrocht this conceptione.

1539.  Bible (Great), Ruth ii. 19. Where wroughtest thou?

1572.  in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 159. His servantes that attended and wroute at the Coorte. Ibid. (1573), 196. The wyerdrawer … that … wrowght upon sundry propertyes.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., III. (S.T.S.), I. 199. How … vnwislie thay wrocht.

  β.  a. 1100.  Life S. Chad, in Anglia, X. 64. He warhte eac deʓulran eardung stowe.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 91. Þa warhte god feole tacne.

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 1071. Þet he wrahte þulliche wundres.

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 106. He … of his eyre briddes wrauhte [Cott. wraȝte].

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 56. My wreched wylle in wo ay wraȝte.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., V. xiii. 5314. Al þe wilis þat he wraucht [rhyme noucht).

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 70. Sin, not Time, first wraught the change.

  γ.  1 wyrcte, 2 wercte; 5 wyrkkyd, 6– worked (7– work’d).

c. 825.  Vesp. Hymns, i. 3. Digiti mei aptaverunt psalterium, fingras mine wyrctun hearpan.

a. 1175.  Cott. Hom., 229. Þa wercte he fele wundra.

c. 1470.  Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 284. They that wyrkkyd soche wooll.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cccxlvi. (1530), 24/1. Vrbayne … waxed proude and worked all on heed.

1743.  Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 106. It being smooth water, she work’d very well.

  3.  Pa. pple. α. 1 ʓeworht, etc.: see YWROUGHT. β. 4 worȝt, worght; 3 Orm. wrohht, 3–4 wroȝt, 4 wroghte, wrouht(e, wrow(h)t, (wrohut, wroȝth, wrouth), 4–5 wroȝte, wrouȝt(e, wroht, 4–6 wroght, Sc. wrocht, 4–7 wroughte, (5 wrowgt, wrow(g)th, wrout, wrothte, wroth, wrht), 5–6 wrowght, 6 (wrowte, wrotte, rought), Sc. wroucht, (vrocht, rocht), 7 wrote, 4– wrought. γ. [1 ʓewarht], 3 wrauht, 6 wraught.

  β.  [a. 900.  Leiden Riddle, 3. Ni uuat ic mec biuorthæ uullan fliusum.]

c. 1200.  Ormin, Ded. 153. Icc hafe hemm wrohht tiss boc.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 40. Of noȝt Was heuene and erðe samen wroȝt.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 25914 (Cott.). Þerfor haf i worght þis bok.

a. 1300.  Havelok, 1352. Dwelling haueth ofte scaþe wrouth. Ibid., 2453. He haue[de] ful wo wrowht.

13[?].  Cursor M., 1564 (Gött.). Iesu þat all has wrohut.

13[?].  Harrow. Hell (E.), 167. Ȝif ich haue sinnes wrouȝt.

13[?].  Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903), 264. To his licnesse þou art wrout.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 94. Ȝe had nocht wrocht on that maner.

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 3264. Had he worȝt ay to wees welth.

c. 1400.  Apol. Loll., 16. Lord, þu hast wrout al our warkis in vs.

c. 1400.  Rule St. Benet (prose), Prol. iii. 3. It was wrht o-pon þe harde stane.

1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 79. O juge thi decre Is … wroct ful unrychtfully.

c. 1460.  Promp. Parv., 278 (Winch. MS.). Madde, or wroth be crafte or cunnyng, factus.

a. 1500.  Bernard. de cura rei fam., III. 81. Qwhat wonder sulde be wrothte.

1549.  Compl. Scot., vii. 69. The … figuris that hed bene grauit, vrocht, and brodrut.

1556.  Chron. Grey Friars (Camden) 36. A tylte … the wych was wrotte on Assencion day.

1581.  N. Burne, Disputation, in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.), 119. The lyme … could not be vrocht.

1585.  Daniel, Pref. & Ep. bef. Paulus Iouius, To Rdr., Wks. (Grosart), IV. 24. This [invention] … which time hath now at length perfited and rought into a more regulare order.

1635.  Maldon, Essex, Borough Deeds, Bundle 145, No. 2 b. The earth being lately by the tide wroughte.

  γ.  [c. 725.  Corpus Gloss., C 780. Conderetur, ʓewarht.

c. 893.  K. Ælfred, Oros., V. ii. 216. Mon hæt Corrinthisce fatu ealle þe þærof ʓewarhte wæron.

a. 1100.  Life S. Chad, in Anglia, X. 230. Heo wes ʓewarht ufan on huses ʓelicnesse.]

  c. 1275.  Serving Christ, 7, in O. E. Misc., 90. Yef we habbeþ werkes yeynes þi wille wrauht.

1518.  Sel. Pleas Star Chamb. (Selden), II. 135. To … cawse further myschefe to have byn wraught.

a. 1542.  Wyatt, Poems (1908), 55. Gesse, frend, what I am, or how I am wraught.

  δ.  5 worched. ε. 6 workyd, 6– worked.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, VI. xi. 199. We haue worched al maner of sylke werkes.

1538.  workyd [see B. 8].

1733.  Budgell, Bee, No. 5. I. 180. In what an hurry a Weekly Pamphlet of three Sheets must be work’d off.

  B.  Signification.

  1.  Transitive senses.

  *  To perform, execute.

  1.  To do, perform, practise (a deed, course of action, labor, task, business, occupation, process, etc.). Now arch.; chiefly with cognate obj. work or deed, or in such phr. as to work a miracle, to work wonders (pa. t. and pa. pple. freq. wrought), in which sense 10 is blended with this.

Beowulf, 930. A mæʓ god wyrcan wunder æfter wundre.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 21. Eal swa hwæt swa se ʓesenelica lichama deþ oþþe wyrceþ.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. xlvii. 3. He axode hwæt hy wyrcean cuþon: hi andswarodon…: We synd scephyrdas.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 10. God weorc heo worhte on me. Ibid., John iii. 2. Ne mæʓ nan man þas tacn wyrcan þe ðu wyrest, buton God beo mid him.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 117. Leorniað god to wurchenne.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 9988. Swillke sinndenn alle þa Þatt wirrkenn gode werkess.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 59. Swich elmesse to wurchen.

c. 1200–  [see WONDER sb. 2, 3].

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 1053. Oðre … þurh wicchecreftes wurchið summe wundres.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 424. Wurche þet me hat hire wiðuten grucchunge.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2218. Ðe breðere ne wisten it noȝt Hu ðis dede wurðe wroȝt.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 2569. Seint germayn … prechede,… & vair miracle wroȝte.

c. 1375.  Cursor M., 5870 (Fairf.). Þai salle … wirk .ij. dayes werk a-pon a day.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Merch. T., 241. Wirk alle thyng by conseil.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. x. 50. And wolde … wirche sumwhile the oon craft and sumwhile the other craft.

1508.  Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 351. I maid that wif carll to werk all womenis werkis.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. ii. § 3. God worketh nothing without cause.

c. 1600.  in Engl. Hist. Rev. (1919), July, 435. She worcketh knittinge of stockings.

1618.  W. Lawson, New Orch. & Garden, x. (1623), 27. Grafting … is thus wrought.

1649.  Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., IV. viii. (1654), 361. A Sacrament, conferring Grace by the very work wrought.

1746.  Francis, trans. Horace, Art Poetry, 264. Let not such upon the Stage be brought, which belter should behind the Scenes be wrought.

1784.  Cowper, Task, VI. 557. So God wrought double justice.

1821.  Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Wallace, xci. In Guienne right valiant deeds he wrought.

1851.  Dixon, W. Penn, ii. (1872), 12. The miracles wrought by Spanish saints.

1863.  Stanley, Jew. Ch., I. iii. 64. The twenty years of exile and servitude had wrought their work.

1904.  Budge, 3rd & 4th Egypt. Rooms Brit. Mus., 181. Stone object, with twenty facets,… probably used in working magic.

1920.  J. P. Whitney, in Engl. Hist. Rev., Jan., 25. The special work which he undertook and the rich ability with which he wrought it to the end.

  b.  To do (something evil or harmful); to commit (a sin, wrong or crime). arch.

c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, v. 7. Alle ða ðe wircað unrehtwisnisse.

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 569. Sipes ȝe sinkeð, and scaðe ðus werkeð.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 24158. Vn-reufulli yee wirc vnright.

c. 1325.  Spec. Gy Warw., 759. Anon, so þu hast sinne wrouht,… to shrifte þat þu gange.

1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 688. Þe hete … Þat enforceþ þe flech folie to wirchel.

a. 1352.  Minot, Poems (ed. Hall), vii. 62. Fals treson alway þai wroght.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., III. xi. 342. The pseudo Apostilis wrouȝten persecucioun … aȝens the trewe Apostlis.

c. 1450.  St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 5638. When he had þis theft wrought.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, I. 161. Mony gret wrang thai wrocht.

1535.  Coverdale, Ezek. xxxiii. 26. Ye worke abhominacions, euery one defyleth his neghbours wife.

1611.  Bible, Matt. vii. 23. Depart from me, ye that worke iniquity.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 25. Working that malice on the creatures … which he could not … wrecke on their Creator.

1829.  Hood, Eug. Aram, xiii. Methought, last night, I wrought A murder, in a dream!

  † c.  To perform, observe (a ceremony, etc.). Obs.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xxvi. 18. Mið ðec ic wyrco eastro [facio pascha] mið ðeʓnum minum.

c. 1325.  Chron. Eng., 311, in Ritson, Metr. Rom., II. 283. Eleutherie, the pope of Rome, Stablede suithe sone Godes werkes wurche, Ant singe in holy Chirche.

1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 3685. Goddes minister … Þat þe sacrament of þe auter wirkes.

c. 1460.  Play Sacram., 325. Seyng hys evynsong as yt hys worshepe for to werche.

  † d.  To carry on, wage, make (war). Obs.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 3220. Ðat folc ebru to werchen wi.

a. 1352.  Minot, Poems (ed. Hall), vi. 31. A were es wroght … Ȝowre walles with to wrote.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., IV. metr. vii. 114 (Camb. MS.). Agamenon, þat wrowhte and continuede the batayles by x. ȝer.

c. 1475.  Partenay, 4056. Where this Geant were procured and wrought.

  2.  To perform, carry out, execute (a person’s will, advice, etc.). Obs. or arch. (in later use passing into sense 10).

971.  Blickl. Hom., 67. Þæt þu scealt on æʓhwylce tid Godes willan wercan.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. vii. 21. Se þe wyrcð mines fæder willan.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 81. Hu me sulde godalmihti serue, and his wille wurche in orðe.

c. 1225.  Juliana, 35 (Bodl. MS.). Wurch eleusius wil for ich þe ȝeoue leaue.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 307. He … graunted him … Forto worchen his wille as lord wiþ his owne.

a. 1375.  Joseph Arim., 491. His riche men … þat his red wrouȝten.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1881. All the soueranis … assignet me hir, For to wirke with my wille, & weld as myn owne.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lxix. 23. Lat Fortoun wirk furthe hir rage.

1595.  Munday, John a Kent (Shaks. Soc.), 12. Leave the God of heaven to woorke his will.

1700.  Dryden, Cock & Fox, 589. The false loon, who could not work his will By open force, employ’d his flattering skill.

  **  To construct, produce, effect.

  3.  To produce by (or as by) labor or exertion; to make, construct, manufacture; to form, fashion, shape. Obs. or arch. in general sense; often, now usually, implying artistic or ornamental workmanship (most commonly in pa. pple. wrought; see also e). See also work up, 39 h.

Beowulf, 1452. Swa hine fyrndaʓum worhte wæpna smið.

c. 1205.  Lay., 22911. Ich þe wulle wurche a bord … þat þer maȝen setten to sixtene hundred & ma.

a. 1366[?].  Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 559. Of body ful wel wrought was she. Ibid. (c. 1386), Sqr.’s T., 120. He þat it wroghte koude ful many a gyn.

c. 1420.  Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903), 271. A bok … Þat men callyt an abece, Pratylych I-wrout. Ibid. Wrout is on þe bok with-oute, V. paraffys [Bodl. MS. 789 wrouȝt].

c. 1420.  Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 1882. So curyously, in so lytell a compace, In all thys world was neuer thyng wrought.

c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 264. To ane preuie Chalmer … thay him led, Quhair ane burely bed was wrocht.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 133. Quharof the beis wrocht thar hunny sweit.

1545.  Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 115. Some of them, whych … worke ye kinges Artillarie for war.

1584.  Cogan, Haven Health, lxxxiii. (1636), 86. The liver … is the place where all the humours of the body are first wrought.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 267. The blind laborious Mole In winding Mazes works her hidden Hole.

1752.  Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 103. A hundred cabinet-makers in London can work a table … equally well.

1791.  Cowper, Iliad, XVI. 272. A goblet exquisitely wrought.

1817.  J. Evans, Excurs. Windsor, etc., 258. A public road, beneath which is worked a path conducting to a fine lawn.

1850.  Scoresby, Cheever’s Whalem. Adv., i. (1858), 4. Whether the first … whaling harpoon used in America was wrought there.

1864.  J. Hunt, trans. Vogt’s Lect. Man, x. 269. The [flint] instruments of oval shape have been mostly worked by gentle blows.

  (b)  with immaterial object.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 29326. All þaa þat wirkes Laus gain right of hali kirkes.

1721.  Prior, Predestination, Wks. 1907, II. 351. Are not the Texture of our Actions wrought By something inward that directs our thought?

1752.  Gray, Bentley, 7. Each dream, in fancy’s airy colouring wrought.

  b.  Said of God: To create. Also in pass., the pa. pple. sometimes becoming equivalent to ‘born.’ Obs. or rare arch. See also 7.

Beowulf, 92. Þæt se ælmihtiʓa eorðan worhte.

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xix. 4. Qui fecit ab initio masculum et feminam fecit eos, seðe worohte from fruma woepen-monn & wifmonn ʓeworhte hia.

a. 1225.  Leg. Kath., 369. Nis buten an godd,… þet al þe world wrahte.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 373. He wroght apon þe toþer day Þe firmament.

c. 1369.  Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 90. Alas (quoth shee) that I was wrought.

c. 1441.  in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 205. Alle women that in this world be wrowght.

a. 1550[?].  Freiris of Berwik, 364, in Dunbar’s Poems (1893), 297. Quhat sall I do? Allace, that I wes wrocht.

c. 1586.  C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CXLV. v. All creatures thou hast wrought … shall their Creator sound.

1639.  Mure, Ps., VIII. iii. The moone, the twinckling starrs … Works, by thy finger wroght.

1648.  Bp. Hall, Breathings Devout Soul, § 19. The less I can satisfie my self with marvailing at thy works, the more let me adore the majesty and omnipotence of thee that wroughtest them.

  c.  To construct, build (a house, church, wall, bridge, etc.) Obs. or rare arch. See also 39 a.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom., I. 22. Ða cwædon hi betwux in þæt hi woldon wyrcan ane burh.

13[?].  Leg. Gregory, 218. Chirches, chapels, boþe ysame Werche sche dede.

14[?].  Sir Beues (MS. M.), 3685. Beues dyd wyrke Abbeys, mynesters, and meny a kirke.

c. 1470.  Golagros & Gaw., 64. Weill wroght wes the wall, And payntit with pride.

1667.  Milton, P. L., X. 300. They … the Mole immense wraught on Over the foaming deep high Archt.

a. 1701.  Maundrell, Journ. Jerus., 7 March (1707), 18. An old Bridge … exceeding well wrought.

1735.  J. Price, Stone-Br. Thames, 7. Scaffolds for working the said Piers from Bottom to Top.

1747.  Gould, Eng. Ants, 12. Their [sc. ants’] double Saw, by means whereof they work their Apartments.

1876.  Morris, Sigurd, I. 1. Earls were the wrights that wrought it [sc. a house].

  † d.  To ‘make,’ obtain (a friend). Obs. rare.

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xxiv. § 3. Mid þis andweardan welan mon wyrcð oftor fiond ðonne freond.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 41. Mid weldede of giue [man mai] frend wuerche.

  e.  const. of, rarely out of (the material or constituents); also in (some material), usually implying artistic or ornamental workmanship. (In later use almost always in pa. pple. wrought.)

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 12. Hit is þæs godcundan anwealdes ʓewuna þæt he wircð of yfle good.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., John ii. 15. He worhte swipan of strengon.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. vi. 14. Wyrc ðe nu anne arc of aheawenum bordum. Ibid. (c. 1000), Hom., I. 12. God … cwæð þæt he wolde wyrcan mannan of eorðan.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 15182. Nollde nohht te Laferrd Crist … Hemm wirrkenn win inoh off nohht,… Acc wollde off waterr wirrkenn win.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 22804. He þat dos flexs worth in to lame, O lam mai wirc flessli licam.

a. 1375.  Joseph Arim., 204. A newe chaumbre-wouh wrouȝt al of bordes.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1919), xxiv. 141. In the myddes of this palays is the mountour for the grete Cane þat is alle wrought of gold & of precyous stones.

1567.  Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 131. O Lord, quhilk wrocht all thingis of nocht.

1596.  Edward III., III. i. 68. Their streaming Ensignes, wrought of coulloured silke.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., 681. Good milstones are wrought out of the rocke.

1709.  A. Philips, To Earl of Dorset, 34. Every shrub, and every blade of grass, And every pointed thorn, seem’d wrought in glass.

1842.  Lover, Handy Andy, xl. Various ornaments … wrought in the purest gold.

1877.  Huxley, Physiogr., 206. Forty-six noble columns, some wrought in granite and some in marble.

  † 4.  To compose (a book or writing), to write.

c. 900.  trans. Bæda’s Hist., III. xvii. On þære bec, þe ic worhte.

971.  Blickl. Hom., 169. Se ðe þas boc worhte.

c. 1200.  Ormin, Ded. 24. Þatt icc Þiss werrc þe shollde wirrkenn. Ibid., 14269. Þatt boc, þatt Moysæs & tatt profetess wrohhtenn.

a. 1272.  Luue Ron, 2, in O. E. Misc., 93. A Mayde cristes me bit yorne Þat ich hire wurche a luue ron.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 14836. Of Ynge saw y neuere nought, Neyþer in boke write ne wrought.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., Prol. 372. As thogh that he of malice wolde endyten Despyt of love, and had him-self hit wroght.

1617.  Woodall, Surg. Mate, Pref., Wks. (1653), 13. Who likes, approves, and usefull deems This work, for him ’tis wrought.

1746.  Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., I. iv. 60. Some therefore ask, can comedy be thought A real poem, since it may be wrought in style and subject without fire or force.

  † b.  To utter, speak, say. Obs. rare.

c. 1350.  in Horstmann, Altengl. Leg. (1881), 30. Þai ditted þaire eris, for þai suld noght Here þir wurdes þat þus war wroght.

a. 1352.  Minot, Poems (ed. Hall), i. 45. Philip Valays wordes wroght And said he suld þaire enmys sla.

  5.  To make (a ‘web’ or textile fabric), to weave; to make (something consisting of such fabric, as a garment, quilt, etc.) by means of needlework, to sew or knit; to ornament with a design, figure or pattern in needlework, to embroider.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 377. Two pilches weren ðurȝ engeles wroȝt.

a. 1400.  Engl. Gilds (1870), 350. Non of þe Citee ne shal don werche qwyltes ne chalouns by-þoute þe walles.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., xliii. 171. A damisell … þe whiche can wel werche your sherte.

1511–2.  Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 6 § 1. The Walker and Fuller shall truely walke fulle thikke and werke every webbe of wollen yerne.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 991. Now she vnweaues the web that she hath wrought. Ibid. (1595), John, IV. i. 43. My hand-kercher … (The best I had, a Princesse wrought it me).

1651.  Davenant, Gondibert, II. xxviii. These belts (wrought with their ladies’ care).

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ., Pulse. She was working a pair of ruffles.

1784.  Cowper, Task, I. 33. A splendid cover … of tapestry richly wrought.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. ii. 21. You have wrought your web thinner and thinner.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 654. In the weaving of ribbed hosiery, the plain rib courses are wrought alternately.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 174. The princess, who had been educated only to work embroidery, to play on the spinet, [etc.].

1868.  Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women, vi. I’m going to work Mr. Laurence a pair of slippers.

  b.  const. with the design, figure or pattern.

a. 1366[?].  Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 897. His garnement was euerydell Portreied and wrought with floures.

1480.  Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 115. An hoby harneis … enbrowdered and wroght with ageletts of silver and gilt.

1575.  in Archaeologia, XXX. 12. Item sixe quyshions, wrought withe my L. [= Lord’s] armes.

1842.  Tennyson, Audley Court, 20. A damask napkin wrought with horse and hound.

  c.  with the design, figure or pattern as obj.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., 207*. The Danes bare in their Ensigne a Raven wrought … in needle-worke.

1841.  Hart’s Fancy-work Bk., 18. To work patterns drawn on canvas.

1859.  J. Brown, Horæ Subs., Ser. I. (1861), 286. Working her name on the blankets.

1883.  D. C. Murray, Hearts, ix. (1885), 65. The maxims you cherish would have served … for your grandmother to work on samplers.

  6.  To make (an image or figure); to delineate, paint or draw (a picture, ornamental design, etc.); to carve (a statue or piece of sculpture); also, to represent by an image, portray, picture. Obs. or arch. exc. in special connections. See also 39 h.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 23216. Painted fire … Þat apon a wagh war wroght.

1448–9.  Metham, Amoryus & Cleopes, 60. Lettyrrys off gold, þat gay were wrowght to þe ye.

1597.  W. Barlow, Navig. Supply, H 1. If these diuisions be wrought vpon Latten plates.

1680.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., xii. 206. I shall proceed to the working a Pattern or two in Soft Wood.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, V. 328. There, Ganymede is wrought with living Art.

a. 1707.  Prior, To the Hon. C. Montague, ii. Each, like the Graecian Artist, woo’s The Image He himself has wrought.

1769.  Sir J. Reynolds, Disc. (1778), 19. The pictures, thus wrought with such pain, now appear like the effect of enchantment.

1780.  Mirror, No. 103. A large iron gate, at the top of which the family arms are worked.

1874.  J. H. Pollen, Anc. & Mod. Furniture S. Kens. Mus., 129. As the ornamental tooling is worked on leather by the bookbinder.

  † 7.  With complemental word or phrase: To cause to be…, make, render; to change, convert, turn into something different; to bring into a specified state; also, to make or create in the form of. With simple compl. or const. to, into. Obs.

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxi. 13. Hyt ys awriten, min hus is ʓebedhus; witodlice ʓe worhton þæt to þeofa cote.

c. 1205.  Lay., 18737. His lond þu forbernest, & hine blæð wurchest.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 8392. For þi luue was i widue wroght. Ibid., 12370. Ye þat he has wroght to men And þat efter his aun ymage. Ibid., 24088 (Edin.). Þat wroht me out of wite. Ibid. (13[?]), 13824 (Gött.). He þat me hal has wroght.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 9004. Mony woundet þat worthy & wroght vnto dethe.

c. 1410.  Sir Cleges, 336. Thys sawe I neuer…, Syn I was man wrowght!

c. 1480.  Henryson, Want of Wyse Men, 6. Welth is away, wit is now wrochtin to wrinkis.

15[?].  Dunbar, Poems, lxxii. 115. Ordane for Him ane resting-place, That is so werie wrocht for the.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. ii. 47. We had need pray … for our deliuerance; Or this imperious man will worke vs all From Princes into Pages.

1639.  Saltmarshe, Policy, 43. If you suspect the performance of a promise, worke them obliged by some speciall engagement and pawne.

  8.  To make, form or fashion into something (formerly also † in); to make up; to compound (ingredients); to shape (material). See also 39 e.

  In various connections; cf. senses above. Often with special reference to the process or operation performed; thus passing into branch ***.

1538.  Starkey, England, II. i. 173. Our marchantys cary them [sc. lead and tin] out…, and then bryng the same in workyd agayn, and made vessel therof.

1558.  in Hakluyt, Voy. (1599), I. 303. All our olde hempe is spunne and wrought in tenne cables … and thirteene Hausers.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. xii. 65. Gun-powder of a … Russet colour … may be judged to have all its Receipts well wrought.

1677.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., i. 9. When you joyn several Bars of Iron together … and work them into one Bar.

1717.  Prior, Alma, III. 461. I … melted down my Plate, On Modern Models to be wrought.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., II. ii. 135. To unlay a cable to work into running rigging.

1820.  Q. Mus. Mag., II. 17. The subject of the Fugata to the Amen, is taken from CORELLI, is a very good one. It were to be wished that it had been worked into a regular Fugue.

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 464. String Rugs … are made from odds and ends of … wool, which are … worked into coarse canvas in loops.

  † b.  To inflict (wounds). Obs.

c. 1400.  Melayne, 1522. We sall wirke þam wondis full wyde.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., xxvi. 363. Anoyntmentys … ffor to anoyntt his woundys sere, That Iues hym wroght.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 339. These theues and robeurs smote … fiersly vpon philotes…, worchynge and gyuyng to him many woundes.

  c.  To produce or cause by continued application of physical force, e.g., friction; to ‘wear’ (a cavity, etc.) by attrition.

1836.  C. Wordsworth, Athens, xxvi. (1855), 174. The wheels have worked deep grooves in the rock.

Mod.  He works holes in the seat of his trousers.

  9.  To put in, insert, incorporate, esp. in the way of construction or composition (cf. 3, 4): in various special connections (see quots.). See also 36 a.

1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, 83. Glasse wrought with good lead,… Glass wrought with an Arch well leaded.

1707.  Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 262. We … work into the Aperture, the Colours we would give the flower.

1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 226, ¶ 1. Those occasional Dissertations, which he has wrought into the Body of his History.

1711.  W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 48. To … work 3 whole Plank between 2 Buts.

1753–4.  Richardson, Grandison, II. vii. 42. The love of pleasure … was wrought into his habit. He was a slave to it.

1868.  Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869), 254. Such a hedge may be repaired by thrusting … brush … into the holes … and … working saplings through it obliquely.

1888.  Iron, 25 May, 465. Heavy coils of iron … have been wrought round the … fore part of each gun.

  b.  Hort. To graft (on a stock): also fig.

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., ii. 10. The Romanes early wrought so much civility upon the Brittish stock.

1715.  De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. i. (1841), I. 28. Getting the word of life wrought in your heart.

1837.  T. Rivers, Rose Amateur’s Guide, 72. A collection of Chinese Roses worked on short stems.

1859.  R. Thompson, Gard. Assist., 387. The … portion cut off, is termed the scion, or graft, and the rooted plant, on which it is placed or worked, is called the stock.

1868.  Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869), 203. [The Kilmarnock willow] is frequently worked on low stems, and in consequence much of its beauty is lost.

  10.  To effect, bring about, bring to pass; to accomplish, achieve; to cause, produce. (In early use often approaching sense 1.) See also 38 f, 39 h.

c. 1220.  Bestiary, 498. He him iuel werkeð.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 850. He werken sckaðe and bale. Ibid., 1812. Ðe ne leate ic noȝt, Til ðin bliscing on me beð wroȝt.

c. 1315.  Shoreham, Poems, I. 774. Sauuacion to werche.

1340–70.  Alisaunder, 412. With his ferefull folke to Phocus hee rides, And is wilfull in werk to wirchen hem care.

13[?].  Cursor M., 20926 (Edin.). To quilis he wroȝte þe cristin scam.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 1173. Forto wirch me no wrong.

1382.  Wyclif, 2 Cor. vii. 10. That sorwe that is aftir God, worchith penaunce…; forsoth sorwe of the world worchith deeth.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 1696, Lucretia. Ful longe lay the sege & lytil wroughten.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. i. (1495), e iv b/1. In dyuerse maters [heete] werkyth dyuerse effectes.

c. 1400.  Pety Job, 32, in 26 Pol. Poems, 122. So moche woo hit [sc. sin] hath vs wrought.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxxi. 5. He wirkis sorrow to him sell.

1549.  Compl. Scot., xv. 135. Tariand quhil the tyme virk ane bettir chance.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 110. They were confederated … to worke him an vtter mischiefe.

1576.  Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 39. Whose daggers dinte wrought his dolefull death.

1596.  Bacon, Max. Com. Law, iii. (1636), 15. Words are so to be understood, that they worke somewhat, and be not idle and frivolous.

1601.  Daniel, Civ. Wars, I. l. Who else … his safetie might haue wrought.

1648.  Gage, West Ind., 200. He replyed, that what Porke might work upon mans body in other Nations, it worked not there.

1724.  Ramsay, Vision, xxiv. Lat them … stryve to wirk my fall.

1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 87, ¶ 2. Though good advice was given, it has wrought no reformation.

1825.  Jefferson, Autobiog., Wks. 1859, I. 17. To wait the event of this campaign will certainly work delay.

1831.  G. P. R. James, Philip Aug., xxxi. The ravages that confinement and sorrow had worked upon him.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxvi. The beer had wrought no bad effect upon his appetite.

1843.  Macaulay, Lays Anc. Rome, Virginia, 78. Let him who works the client wrong beware the patron’s ire!

1844.  H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 475. They were objects of general esteem and respect…, and wrought an impression favourable to the ultimate reception of the doctrines which they taught.

1877.  Huxley, Physiogr., 183. The destruction wrought by the sea.

1912.  Halsbury’s Laws of England, XXIV. 250. An alienation by tenant in tail … worked a discontinuance.

  † 11.  To act in order to or so as to effect (something); to plan, devise, contrive; to put in practice, manage (a business or proceeding). Obs.

c. 1300.  K. Horn, 288 (Laud). Wat reymnild wroute Mikel wonder him þoute.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 85. Such Weddyng to worche to wraþþe with truþe.

1561.  T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, II. (1577), G viij. Hee ought to worke the matter wisely.

1621.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Unnat. Father, Wks. (1630), II. 137/2. He resolued to worke some means to take away their … liues.

1635.  R. N., trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., I. 78. The Conspiratours so wrought the matter, that very many of the Nobility assented to the marriage.

1647–8.  Cottrell, trans. Davila’s Hist. France (1678), 19. The Cardinal ardently wrought the Prince’s destruction by counseling the King.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 646. To work in close design, by fraud or guile What force effected not.

  ***  To do something to an object (thing or person).

  12.  To bestow labor or effort upon; to operate upon: in various connections and shades of meaning. a. To till, cultivate (land): = LABOUR v. 1; rarely, to cultivate (a plant or crop).

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. ix. 20. Noe … began to wyrcenne ðæt land.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., III. 589. Faat lond, ydonged, moyst, & well ywroght Oynons desire.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 49 b. [God] dyd … set hym in paradyse … for that entent that he sholde worke and kepe it.

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 120. Choose soile for the hop of the rottenest mould, well doonged and wrought.

1622.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 107. The earth is soft and sandy, esy to bee wrought.

1744.  in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr., App. II. 121. For the … raising, planting, and working a vegetable (called Sesamo) extraordinary productive of oyl.

1796.  C. Marshall, Garden., xx. (1813), 394. When the ground can be conveniently worked.

1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 263. The common of Rattry … is indeed very barren; but if it were wrought, it would produce turnips and then grass.

  b.  To get, ‘win’ (stone or slate from a quarry, ore or coal from a mine, etc.) by labor; also with the quarry, mine, etc., as obj.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 3069. Me wolde wene þat in þis lond no ston to worke nere.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. vii. 226. The silver that hath beene wrought in the country.

1618.  Ralegh, Apol. Guiana (1650), 54. It had been no lesse a breach of Peace to have wrought any Myne of his,… then it is now cald’d … a breach of peace to take a towne of his.

1709.  T. Robinson, Nat. Hist. Westmld., x. 62. We found the Vein wrought three Yards wide, and twenty Fathom deep.

1778.  Pryce, Min. Cornub., 21. Several parts of the Lode … have been indiscreetly hulked and worked.

1791.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 99. I … went to view the quarries where the flat paving and steps were wrought.

1839.  De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. iv. 124. Roofing-slates and flagstones have been worked in some places.

1844.  J. Dunn, Oregon Terr., 241. The natives were anxious that we should employ them to work the coal.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 212/1. Several mines were worked for this metal.

  c.  with various objects: see quots.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 1721, Lucretia. Softe wolle … she wroughte.

1770.  Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 360. When he worked White Paper, he caught the sheet by the upper further corner.

1839.  Mrs. Kirkland, New Home, x. 60. The road had been but little ‘worked’ … and in some parts was almost in a state of nature.

1880.  W. Carnegie, Pract. Trap., 7. The heaps with the most distinct tracks and most worked (i.e., continually used).

1883.  Chamb. Jrnl., 15 Dec., 791/2. Produce of value, such as tea, coffee, indigo, drugs, &c., have to be ‘worked’ for sale purposes; and this term embraces the opening of the package, examination for sea-damage, sorting into qualities, and a host of other operations.

  d.  To manipulate (a substance) so as to bring it into the required condition; esp. to knead, press, stir, etc. (a plastic substance), or to mix or incorporate (such substances) together by this means; also, to spread (a color or pigment) over a surface.

1417.  York Memorandum Bk. (Surtees), I. 183. That he wyrk na lede amanges any other metall…, bot if it be in souldur.

1466.  Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 326. That no tanner, ne glover,… wyrche harr leddyr at the ryver.

1494.  Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 19. Cussions stuffed with … gotis here, which is wrought in lyme fattes.

1565–6.  Blundevil, Horsemanship, Horses Dis., liii. (1580), 22. Mingle them togither, & stirre them continuallie in a pot…, vntill the Quicksiluer be so wrought with the rest, as you shall perceiue no quicksiluer therein.

1575.  Gascoigne, Glasse Govt., Wks. 1910, II. 36. You shall see … how I will worke this geare lyke wax.

1653.  Walton, Angler, viii. 172. Mix with it [sc. paste] Virgins-wax and clarified honey, and work them together with your hands before the fire.

1747–96.  Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xxi. 340. When they are wrought to a paste, roll them with the ends of your fingers.

1756.  Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitl. Club), 147. This salt they work into the butter.

1852.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XIII. I. 4. After the butter is taken from the churn it must first be well squeezed or ‘worked’ by the hand.

1853.  Soyer, Pantroph., 285. Some cooks … worked sesame flour … with honey and oil.

1885.  C. Wallis, Dict. Water-colour Technique, 14. The first tone should be decidedly grey…; and on this may be worked Raw Sienna and Brown Madder.

  e.  To shape (stone, metal, or other hard substance) by cutting or other process; also, to beat out or shape (metal) by hammering (see WROUGHT ppl. a. 4). Also with down. Also transf. to wear by friction or attrition. Also fig.

1665.  Phil. Trans., I. 65. Before the Glass is wrought down to its true Figure.

1679.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., ix. 157. A greater number of Boards to work to a Level. Ibid. (1703), 37. Till you have wrought [ed. 1677 filed] the Spindle from end to end.

1717.  Berkeley, Tour in Italy, Wks. 1871, IV. 550. Stone easily wrought.

1781.  Cowper, Flatting Mill, 2. When a bar of pure silver or ingot of gold Is sent to be flatted or wrought into length.

1844.  Mrs. Browning, Lady Geraldine’s Courtship, li. Little thinking if we work our souls as nobly as our iron.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlix. (1856), 465. It [sc. an iceberg] is an amorphous mass, so worn that it must have been sorely wrought before its release from the glacier.

1855.  Squier, Adv. Mosquito Shore, ix. (1856), 146. The trunk of the ceiba … is invaluable…. The wood is easily worked.

1885.  Athenæum, 21 March, 382/1. The facility of working it [sc. limestone] would lead one to expect that an arcuated architecture would have sprung up in Assyria.

  f.  To do artistic work upon; to decorate, inlay (with something). (Cf. INWROUGHT 1.) rare.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 61. Two Pillars … couered and wrought with blue and Gold. Ibid. Roofe and sides imbost and wrought with gold.

  g.  Sporting (with the game, or the scent, as obj.).

1568.  in Archaeologia, XXXV. 207. The Emperore and my Lord wente a hontynge of the hare … and worked xx. hares or theare aboutes.

1855.  Smedley, H. Coverdale, iii. 13. He says we’ve worked them [sc. the rabbits] quite enough.

1888.  P.. Lindley, in Times, 16 Oct., 10/5. When I tried to work the scent of a deer which had got away…, the hound proved quite useless.

  h.  To work one’s passage (etc.): to pay for one’s passage on board ship by working during the voyage.

  app. arising from ellipsis for work for; but cf. 38 e.

[1751.  Affect. Narr. Wager, 151 The Captain of this Vessel he prevail’d on to carry them … on Condition of … their Working the Voyage for their Passage.]

1836.  Mrs. C. P. Traill, Backw. Canada, 8. A pretty yellow-haired lad,… who works his passage out.

1849.  Thackeray, Pendennis, xxv. Some months afterwards Amory made his appearance at Calcutta, having worked his way out before the mast from the Cape.

1884.  C. C. Buel, in Century Mag., Jan., 365/1. An educated young Englishman … worked his passage as a coal-passer and ash-heaver.

  i.  colloq. or slang. To go through or about (a place) for the purposes of one’s business or occupation; to carry on one’s trade or business, or some operation, in.

  spec. (a) of a hound, (b) of an itinerant vendor, beggar, etc.; (c) of a clergyman; (d) of a canvasser.

1834.  Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 68. I gave up my bitch … to Joe, to work the enclosures, and he got 5 brace and 1 hare.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 79. I’ve worked both town and country on gold fish.

1859.  Slang Dict., 117. To work a street or neighbourhood, trying at each house to sell all one can.

1859.  H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xii. Frank Maberly [a parson] had been … as he expressed it, ‘working the slums’ at Exeter.

a. 1885.  Sladen, Poetry of Exiles (ed. 2), I. 24. It’s not so many years ago since you and I together   Were working on this very Twelfth the old Dumfriesshire moor.

1893.  Daily News, 18 Feb., 3/5. To use an electioneering phrase, it is not easy to ‘work’ this hilly region of Winstone.

1897.  Tit-Bits, 4 Dec., 186/2. A professional beggar who ‘works’ seventy or eighty streets in a few hours.

  transf.  1883.  H. James, in Century Mag., XXVI. 393/1. He ‘worked’ the hunting-field largely. It constantly re-appears in his novels.

  j.  slang. To deal with in some way; to get, or to get rid of, esp. by artifice; (of an itinerant vendor) to hawk, sell.

1839.  Dict. Flash or Cant. Lang., 36. Work the Bulls, get rid of bad 5s. pieces.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 84. They made more money ‘working’ these [sc. pine-apples] than any other article.

1890.  ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, x. Somebody might claim the colt…—say you’d worked him on the cross.

  k.  To investigate or study systematically. See also work out (38 k), work up (39 j).

1900.  J. Shephard & W. Strickland, in Handbk. Austral. Assoc., Melbourne, 74. The aquatic worms are an untouched group. There are very many forms and when worked they will doubtless yield interesting results.

  1.  To operate upon so as to get into some state or convert into something else; to bring or reduce to; refl. with compl. adj. to go through some process so as to become…. See also work up, 39 e.

1594.  Plat, Jewell-ho., 70. An English trauayler … aduised me to make the same [sc. Malmesey] alwaies about the middest of Maie, that it might haue 3. hot moneths togither to work it to his ful perfection.

1713.  Addison, Cato, I. ad fin. So the pure limpid Stream, when foul with Stains … Work’s it self clear, and as it runs, refines.

1753–4.  Richardson, Grandison, II. ix. 59. His estate would … work itself clear.

1879.  Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, v. 113. All human achievement must be wrought down to this spoon-meat.

1884.  Manch. Exam., 20 Feb., 4/6. It would take some time for the trade to work itself right.

  13.  Math., etc. = work out, 38 g; cf. 28.

1593.  P. Fale, Horologiogr., 25. I worke this altogether like to the South reclining 45.^d. … untill I have found out the Elevation of the Meridian.

1623.  J. Johnson, Arith., II. 137. A second way more briefly to worke this question. Ibid., 291. The same example wrought another way.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., II. xiv. 86. English Navigators work their Observation by the Complement of the Sun’s Altitude.

1794.  J. H. Moore, Pract. Navig. (1828), 40. In all proportions wrought by Gunter’s Scale.

1803.  Beddoes, Hygëia, IX. 72. To sit a horse and to work figures by head at the same time.

1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, II. v. The sum comes to the same figures, worked either way.

1885.  S. Laing, Mod. Sci. & Th., 5. To calculate the distance … with as much ease … as if we were working a simple sum of rule of three.

  14.  (= work on, 31). a. To act upon the mind or will of; to influence, prevail upon, induce, persuade (esp. by subtle or insidious means); more widely, to bring into a particular mental state, disposition, etc. Also, in later use, to strive or take measures to induce or persuade; to urge. See also work up, 39 k.

1595.  Daniel, Civ. Wars, V. lxxvii. For frends, opinion, & succeeding chaunce, which wrought the weak to yeld, the strong to loue.

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xviii. § 2. In Negotiation with others; men are wrought by cunning, by Importunitie, and by vehemencie.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., 532. Yet could hee not bee wrought … to disclose his complices.

1642.  Rogers, Naaman, 45. What doth the Lord? workes Peters heart from that objection, and so from unwillingnesse.

1713.  Addison, Cato, II. i. Are your Hearts subdu’d … and wrought By Time and ill Success to a Submission?

1832.  Tennyson, Miller’s Dau., xxx. God … who wrought Two spirits to one equal mind.

1858.  G. Macdonald, Phantastes, iii. The house or the clothes … cannot be wrought into an equal power of utterance.

1819.  Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxvi. I have been working him even now to abandon her.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iii. He was constantly working the Squire to send him … to a public school.

1880.  Blackmore, Mary Anerley, liv. Sooner, or later, he must come round; and the only way to do it, is to work him slowly.

  b.  To act upon the feelings of; to affect, agitate, stir, move, excite, incite. Also refl. (occas. intr. for refl.). Now usually work up; see 39 k.

1605.  Shaks., Macb. I. iii. 149. My duil Braine was wrought with things forgotten. Ibid. (1610), Temp., IV. i. 144. Your fathers in some passion That workes him strongly.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, X. 1247. Love, Anguish, Wrath, and Grief, to Madness wrought,… his lab’ring Soul oppress’d.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., I. § 4. Sometimes they work themselves into high passions.

1809–11.  Combe, Syntax, xx. 21. The well-dress’d man now stopp’d, to know What work’d the angry Doctor so.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, iv. Grasping his cane tightly, as was his wont when working into a passion. Ibid. (1838), Nich. Nick., xxxiv. ‘Who has?’ demanded Ralph, wrought by the intelligence…, and his clerk’s provoking coolness, to an intense pitch of irritation. Ibid. (1848), Dombey, xxiii. Endeavouring to work herself into a state of resentment.

1854.  Milman, Lat. Christ., IX. ii. (1864), V. 210. Philip … wrought by indignation from his constitutional mildness.

1883.  R. W. Dixon, Mano, I. v. 13. Which rigour wrought those children of the ground To that mad rising.

  c.  Of medicine: To take effect upon.

1712–3.  Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 25 March. I take a little physic over-night, which works me next day.

1771.  Smollett, Humphry Cl., 26 April. Let. ii. It worked Mrs. Gwyllim a pennorth.

  d.  To practise on, hoax, cheat, ‘do.’ U.S.

1892.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 21 Sept., 6/1 (heading), Waltham officers looking for a horse dealer who has been working that town.

1894.  Howells, Trav. fr. Altruria, 122. I might … suspect him … of … working us, as my husband calls it.

  ****  To move, direct.

  15.  To move (something) into or out of some position, or with alternating movement (to and fro, up and down, etc.): usually with some implication of force exerted against resistance or impediment. Also fig.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 115. This little ditch is not alwaies in one place but in time workes it selfe from one place to another.

1691.  T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 49. Her Rudder wrought it self out of the Irons, hanging only by the uppermost Pintell.

1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, ix. (1840), 166. The rage of the floods … works down a great deal of gold out of the hills.

1831.  Scott, Cast. Dang., xx. That secret charm, which, once impressed upon the human heart, is rarely wrought out of the remembrance by a long train of subsequent events.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 327. Water is poured into it, and soil stirred in till the pit is half full of mud…. The roots of the tree are then inserted, and worked about.

1857.  B. Taylor, Northern Trav., xii. (1858), 127. In vain I shifted my aching legs and worked my benumbed hands.

1867.  F. Francis, Bk. Angling, v. 135. Some people work their flies.

1889.  W. J. Simmons, in Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXV. 62/1. In favourable positions it [the tube] can be ‘worked down’ through the hyaline cap.

1902.  Brit. Med. Jrnl., 12 April, 878/1. Loose body felt at inner side of knee and by working the knee he can make it evident to the touch.

1918.  Times Lit. Suppl., 11 July, 325/4. A neighbouring battery of guns … were being worked into position with a heaving-song.

  16.  To direct or manage the movement of; to guide or drive in a particular course; spec., Naut. to direct the movement of (a ship) by management of the sails and rudder; to move and direct (a boat), as with oars; also in Angling, to ‘play’ (a fish).

1667.  Milton, P. L., IX. 513. A Ship by skilful Steersman wrought Nigh Rivers mouth or Foreland.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. ii. 15. The Practick Part of Navigation, in working of a Ship in all Weathers at Sea.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 336. Having no Sails to work the Ship with.

1762.  Mills, Syst. Pract. Husb., I. 160. Make a dam … and a sluice, and work the water upon it through the winter.

1807.  P. Gass, Jrnl., 193. Making the finest canoes,… and … expert in working them when made.

1825.  J. Wilson, Noctes Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 74. He worked a salmon to a miracle.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. v. Getting on the box, and working the team down street.

1878.  E. B. Tuttle, Border Tales, 31. To work the ship out of danger.

1912.  Standard, 20 Sept., 7/2. Special trains … will be worked over the systems of the Great Northern [etc.] railways.

  17.  refl. To make one’s (or its) way; = 18.

1576.  Turberv., Venerie, 196. [The vermin] will … worke themselues further in, so that your Terriers shall not be able to find them.

1639.  S. Du Verger, trans. Camus’ Admir. Events, 99. Octavian … wrought himselfe into her good will.

1655.  Marq. Worcester, Cent. Inv., § 15. How to make a Boat work it self against both Wind and Tide.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 121, ¶ 5. [The mole] so swiftly working her self under Ground, and making her way so fast in the Earth.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, l. The women worked themselves into the centre of the crowd.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iv. Tom … worked himself into his shoes and his great coat.

1871.  Smiles, Charac., i. (1876), 21. The solitary thought of a great thinker will dwell in the minds of men for centuries, until at length it works itself into their daily life.

  18.  with way, etc., as obj., usually to work one’s or its way: = 33, 33 b; also fig.

1713.  Addison, Cato, I. iii. Through Winds, and Waves, and Storms, he works his way.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 311. They worked their way down these streams.

1831.  Scott, Cast. Dang., ix. [A contagious disease] ravaged the English Borders, and made some incursions into Scotland where it afterwards worked a fearful progress.

1889.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Mrs. Bob, ii. (1891), 20. Mrs. Trafford worked her way round to Major Lovelace.

1889.  R. Brydall, Art Scot., vi. 106. He gradually wrought his way against the usual obstacles which a poor artist must always encounter.

1908.  [Eliz. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 23. The fluffy golden kerria … having worked its way through the thick wall.

  *****  Causal senses.

  19.  To set or compel (a person, animal, etc.) to work; to exact labor from; to employ or use in work. See also 39 i.

1445.  Cov. Leet Bk., 225. What man that wurchithe ony man of the seide craft in contrarie-wyse he shall forfet … x s. to the Towne walle.

1607.  Markham, Cavel., I. (1617), 50. Many good breeders … will let their Mares after they are quickned be moderately trauelled or wrought.

1707.  Sloane, Jamaica, I. p. xvii. Oxen … are reckoned the best meat, if not too much wrought. Ibid., clii. The Slaves are usually so well wrought in the day,… that they do not easily awake.

1798.  J. Naismith, Agric. Clydesdale, 123. Some gentlemen have again begun to use oxen for all the purposes of draught. The Right Honourable Lord Douglas always works a few.

1841.  R. Oastler, Fleet Papers, I. 267. Whether it was right to work little boys and girls in the mills, longer than from six o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the evening.

1888.  H. Ffennell, in Times, 13 Oct., 7/6. The manner in which the hounds should be worked.

1912.  Sir G. O. Trevelyan, Geo. III. & C. Fox, I. vii. 243. The occupants of the best-paid places for the most part were not worked at all.

  b.  To bring or get into some condition by labor or exertion.

1628.  Folkingham, Panala Med., 72. As Oxen wrought leane, regaine the flesh of young beefes by good pasturage.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. li. 246. He … protested that he would not be accessory to the Destruction of so many Innocents, whom he foresaw, would be wrought and starved to Death.

1834.  G. Thorburn, Resid. Amer., 224. When first I began to handle the hammer,… my hands blistered too; but I wrought the blister down.

1840.  Dickens, Old Cur. Shop, xliv. She worked herself to death. Ibid. (1853), Bleak Ho., xiii. Richard said that he would work his fingers to the bone for Ada.

1908.  H. Wales, Old Allegiance, viii. 134. I should think you were working the edge away by this time.

  20.  To set in action, cause to act; to direct the action of; to exercise (a faculty, etc.); to actuate, operate, manage: with various objects, as a machine or apparatus (passing into ****: cf. 16), an institution or scheme, etc.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, I. 63. The raueshyng to wreken of Eleyne … þei wroughten al hire peyne.

c. 1550.  Rolland, Crt. Venus, I. 772. To mend the crime thai will wirk all thair mane.

1591.  Drayton, Harmony Ch., Deborah’s Song, 59. Her left hand to the naile she put, her right the hammer wrought.

c. 1610.  in G. C. Bond, Early Hist. Mining (1924), 15. A smale weight to be drawne a hundered fadam will growe heavye before it be worked up and worke many wheeles.

1756.  C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 128. Water is raised by a machine,… wrought by an horse.

1791.  R. Mylne, 2nd Rep. Thames Navig., 15. The Power of the Millers in working their Heads of Water.

1798.  Coleridge, Anc. Mar., V. xi. The mariners all ’gan work the ropes.

1832.  Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xxxi. (ed. 3), 312. The cabinet-makers … combined against it, and the patent has consequently never been worked.

1853.  Kingsley, Hypatia, xiii. They are … dead dolls, wooden, worked with wires.

1860.  Mill, Repr. Govt. (1865), 1/2. No one believes that every people is capable of working every sort of institutions.

1877.  Daily News, 19 Oct., 5/6. The best way to ‘work’ the elections.

1885.  ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, ix. Always working her money and my own very cautiously.

1922.  G. M. Trevelyan, Brit. Hist. 19th Cent., ix. 154. Great noblemen who were also great coalowners, working their own mines.

a. 1923.  W. P. Ker, Tasso, in Ess. (1925), I. 339. The best way of working figures on their stage.

  b.  In fig. or allusive phrases expressing cunning management or manœuvring, as to work the oracle (see ORACLE sb. 1 b), the ropes, one’s ticket (TICKET sb.¹ 6 b).

1859.  Slang Dict., 117. Work the oracle, to succeed by manæuvering, to concert a wily plan, to victimize.

1884.  Rider Haggard, Dawn, xvii. How our mutual friend worked the ropes is more than I can tell you.

1919.  Athenæum, 15 Aug., 759/1. ‘Working one’s ticket’ means taking steps, such as feigning insanity or sickness, in order to get discharged from the army.

  c.  To cause to ferment.

[Cf. quot. 1594 in 12 l.]

1764.  Eliza Moxon, Engl. Housew. (ed. 9), 140. To make Balm Wine … When it is cold put a little new yeast upon it, and beat it in every two hours,… so work it for two days.

  II.  Intransitive senses.

  *  To act; to perform work or labor.

  21.  Of a person: To do something, or to do things generally; to act, esp. in the particular way mentioned; to proceed; to conduct oneself, behave, ‘do.’ Obs. or arch., or merged in other senses.

a. 1000.  Soul & Body, 64 (Gr.). Swa þu worhtest to me.

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 27. Hem ðe on him belieueð and ðar after wercheð.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 5819. Wisemen he drou to him, & after hom he wroȝte.

1340–70.  Alisaunder, 517. In battail … bigly too wirch.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 497. This noble ensample to his sheepe he yaf That firste he wroghte, and afterward that he taughte.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 7. Þey schulleþ fonge her mede of hym þat rewardeþ … al þat wel worcheþ.

c. 1400.  26 Pol. Poems, v. 8. Gostly blynd … Þat leueþ wit, and worchiþ by wille.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 140. Wher God list werche may be noon obstacle.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 340. [He] putte hym self in to the grettest prees of the bataylle wher he wrought mortally.

a. 1529.  Skelton, Dyuers Balettys, Wks. (Dyce), I. 24. Aduertysing you … to warke more secretly.

1550.  Crowley, Last Trumpet, 1357. If he haue wrought against the lawes.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 63. He, because he could not otherwise speake vnto him, wrought by signes.

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, IV. ii. 29. This ha’s no holding To sweare by him whom I protest to loue That I will worke against him.

  † b.  To let work: to allow to act or proceed (let God work = leave the rest to God). Obs.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid. (1922), 13. Ne þarf þe bute wilnen, & lete godd wurchen.

14[?].  Sir Beues (Pynson), 3372. Iosyan … trauayled of chylde…. She sayde,… ‘go hens away,… And late me worke and our lady.’

1546.  [see A. 1 η].

  22.  To act for a purpose, or so as to gain an end; to plan, plot; to contrive, manage. arch.

a. 1000.  Boeth. Metr., xx. 87. Þæt ðu mid ʓeþeahte þinum wyrcest þæt ðu þæm ʓesceaftum swa ʓesceadlice mearce ʓesettest.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Merch. T., 417. God … may so for yow wirche, That … Ye may repente of wedded mannes lyf.

1390.  Gower, Conf., I. 63. How he can werche Among tho wyde furred hodes, To geten hem the worldes goodes.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, II. 242. Thai wyrk ay to wayt ws with supprys.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 239. Se how politikely the French kyng wrought for his aduantage.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 311. Without the Kings assent or knowledge, You wrought to be a Legate.

a. 1674.  Milton, Hist. Moscovia, v. Wks. 1851, VIII. 511. The Chancellor, with others of the great ones … so wrought, that a Creature of thir own was sent to meet Sir Jerom.

1887.  Morris, Odyssey, XII. 445. So wrought the Father of Gods and of men that I was not seen.

  23.  Of a thing (abstr. or concr.): To do something; to perform a function, or produce an effect; to act, operate, take effect; esp. to act in the desired way, do what is required; to be practicable or effectual, to succeed. See also 33.

c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 3137. Þat fire … wirkes on wonderful manere,… Thurgh wilk þe saule most clensed be In purgatory.

a. 1375.  Joseph Arim., 49. Louse þi lippes a-twynne & let þe gost worche.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxii. (Justin), 593. Þi strinth sal nocht wyrke Agane þe treutht of haly kirke.

1379.  Glouc. Cath. MS., No. 1. I. iii. lf. 3 b. As the sonne wirkyth in all creaturis her beneathe.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1901. Ther Nature wol nat wirche, Fare wel Phisik; go ber the man to chirche.

c. 1400.  trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 71. Whanne þe wyt werketh and þe wyl ys trauaylled.

1422.  Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 206. Prayer,… outsayd in erthe, worchyth in hevyn.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 376. Thise wordes wroughte in the hertes of the calcedonyens and gaf to them corage.

1526.  Tindale, Rom. viii. 28. All thynges worke for the best [1611 work together for good] vnto them that love god.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., III. xi. 91 b. Opium … doth so worke with them…, that they loose both their wits and vnderstanding.

1602.  Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. iii. My plot begins to worke.

1651.  French, Distill., i. 40. This Oil taken inwardly worketh upward and downward.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VIII. 507. Nature her self … Wrought in her so, that seeing me, she turn’d. Ibid. (1671), Samson, 850. It was not gold … That wrought with me.

1784.  J. Twamley, Dairying Exempl., 30. This [salt] will … cause the Rennet to Work quick.

1832.  Edin. Rev., Oct., 245. How will the Reform Bill work in the return of members to Parliament?

1843.  R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., vi. 75. The stomach works well and performs its functions with vigour.

1846.  Trench, Mirac., xvi. 262. [He] left the difficulty … to work in the minds of the apostles.

1861.  Trollope, Framley Parsonage, xxix. Lady Lufton was beginning to fear that her plan would not work.

1869.  W. T. Thornton, On Labour, IV. i. 357. The cases … showing how this arrangement works.

1891.  S. C. Scrivener, Our Fields & Cities, 116. This is how private ownership of property works.

1892.  Mrs. Clifford, Aunt Aune, I. ii. 40. Walter had tried sending Florence and the children and going down every week himself; but he found ‘it didn’t work.’

  b.  Of a machine or apparatus: To perform its proper function; to act, operate.

  Sometimes felt as intr. for pass. from 20. In this and next sense passing into **.

c. 1610.  in G. C. Bond, Early Hist. Mining (1924), 15. Smale modles often fayle … when they cume to worcke upon heavye … weightes.

1702.  Post Man, 21–24 Feb., 2/2. Advt., There is a small Engine, that Raises Water … now set up at the Engine-House … in Dorset Garden, which will work every Saturday and Wednesday.

1726.  Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., II. 11. Cranes or Skrews, or any other Engine, working either by Leavers or Pullies.

1842.  Dickens, Amer. Notes, ii. Telegraphs working: flags hoisted.

1867.  trans. Clausius’ Mech. Theory Heat, 198. A machine which works with expansion.

1889.  Gunter, That Frenchman! iv. 37. Maurice … closes the door behind him, trying it to be sure the spring lock has worked.

1917.  Miss M. T. Jackson, Museum, ii. 67. Like all mechanical devices it [sc. the thermostat] does not always work.

  c.  Of a part of mechanism: To have its proper action or movement in relation to another part with which it is in contact.

1770.  Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 324. [He] besmears … so much of the Cheeks as the ends of the Head works against. Ibid., 366. The square holes the Hose works in.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 130. The four bevelled nuts work into the bevelled wheels … and so turn them.

1892.  Photogr. Ann., II. 172. An index working over a scale.

  24.  To do something involving effort (of body or mind); to exert oneself (physically or mentally) for a definite purpose, esp. in order to produce something or effect some useful result, to gain one’s livelihood or some profit or advantage, or under compulsion; to do work, perform a task or tasks, to toil: = LABOUR v. 11. (Opposed to PLAY v. 10, or to REST v.¹ 2.)

  To work double tides: see TIDE sb. 14.

c. 888.  Ælfred, Boeth., xli. § 3. Hwy sceall þonne æniʓ mon bion idel, ðæt he ne wyrce?

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxi. 28. Ga and wyrce to-dæʓ on minum winʓearde.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 44. Lokeð … þet ȝe ne beon neuer idel: auch wurcheð, oðer redeð, oðer beoð i beoden.

c. 1275.  Lay., 8710–1. Þare wrohte þeines, þare wrohte sweines, and þe king mid his honde.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6843. Sex dais sal yee wirc,… And yee sal rest þe seuend dai.

13[?].  Sir Beues (A.), 58. Me lord is olde & may nouȝt werche.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 525. Þay wente in to þe vyne & wroȝte.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Sec. Nun’s T., 14. Wel oghte vs werche, and ydelnesse withstonde.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., III. xi. 342. Poul … wrouȝte with hise hondis forto haue his lijflode to preche.

1513.  Bradshaw, St. Werburge, II. 880. A woman which … sabbot-day dyd violate Vnlaufully wurkynge.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 72 b. We must worke and labour in goostly exercyse certayn dayes.

1546.  J. Heywood, Prov., I. xi. (1867), 36. As good play for nought as woorke for nought.

c. 1595.  Capt. Wyatt, R. Dudley’s Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl. Soc.), 50. Our men wrought dalie to hoyse aborde all such goodes.

1620.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 784/1. At such one of the saidis mynes as they sall have last wrought into.

1621.  T. Granger, Expos. Eccles., xii. i. 315. We must worke with the Oare while we haue strength, and after sit at the sterne.

a. 1633.  G. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum, 178. Thinke of ease, but worke on.

1851.  Kingsley, Three Fishers. For men must work, and women must weep.

1861.  Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. clxiii. 180. To have taxed his paper, or his ink, or the rush-lights that he wrought by.

1866.  Ruskin, Crown Wild Olive, i. 40. Our third condition of separation, between the men who work with the hand, and those who work with the head.

  b.  const. at, on or upon, † rarely in, of (a material object, esp. in making (cf. 14), a subject of study or literary treatment, an occupation, etc.).

1154.  O. E. Chron. (Laud MS.), an. 1137. Martin abbot … wrohte on þe circe.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 16283. Swa þeȝȝ stodenn … To wirrkenn o þe temmple.

1375.  in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1878), 137/1. [Solomon] þeron … Dede worchen foure & twenty ʓere.

1497.  Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 324. Certeyn Shipwryghtes that wrought of the seid Ship.

1569.  Aldeburgh Rec., in N. & Q., 12th Ser. VII. 184/1. p^d to Rodger coke and his man for workynge in the seatts at Churche.

1612.  J. Davies (Heref.), Muse’s Sacrifice, Wks. (Grosart), II. 6/2. That proud Pyramed … Whereon, three-hundred-threescore-thousand wrought full twenty Yeeres.

1623.  Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., Pref. A sentence of Hesiod so commendable, that … Livie in that [Oration] of Minutius hath it well and diversly wrought-on.

1687.  Prior, Hind & P. Transv., Wks. 1907, II. 15. Vulcan working at the Anvil.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 205. Some Basons have been worked upon several times, without being able almost to make them hold Water.

1840.  G. Godwin, Last Day, i. 5. How hard some folks do work at what they call pleasure.

1853.  Dickens, Bleak Ho., xviii. The little [church-]porch, where a monotonous ringer was working at the bell.

1893.  Liddon, etc., Pusey, I. v. 96. Pusey … spent from fourteen to sixteen hours a day working at Arabic.

a. 1923.  W. P. Ker, Tasso, in Ess. (1925), I. 342. Tasso had been working at his epic poem.

  (b)  In humorous or trivial use, implying vigorous action of some kind.

1840.  Thackeray, Barber Cox, Feb. The Duchess and the great ladies were all seated,… working away at the ices and macaroons.

  25.  To exert oneself in order to accomplish something or gain some end (expressed by context); to strive: = LABOUR v. 12.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1470. He wrogten and figt, Queðer here sulde birðen bi-foren.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 352. He is frend to þe frere þat hatiþ þus his synne & worchiþ to distrie it.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 420. To Wyrke, aporiare & -ri, anxiari, conari, cooperari, conniti.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. iii. 27. Your Honors shall perceiue how I will worke, To bring this matter to the wished end.

1818.  Scott, Rob Roy, xxxiv. Such a deed might make one forswear kin, clan, country, wife, and bairns! And yet the villain wrought long for it.

1873.  Burton, Hist. Scot., V. lviii. 230. He was a refugee in England during the regency of Morton, who wrought hard to lay hands on him.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xvii. That guilty and intriguing minister of Tiberius … had for years worked on with the deliberate intention of clearing every one of them from his path, and climbing to that throne himself.

  26.  To do one’s ordinary business; to pursue a regular occupation; to be regularly engaged or employed in some labor, trade, profession, etc. (in a place, for or under a master or superior). Said also of animals. Also more widely, to do something for a definite end, to engage in some systematic occupation. (Often coinciding with 24.)

1307.  York Memorandum Bk. (Surtees), I. 181. Boclemakers … to serve and to wyrk to pouer and to riche within this cite.

a. 1400.  Isumbras, 398. ‘For mete,’ he sayde, ‘I wold wyrke fayne.’

c. 1450.  Capgrave, Life St. Aug., xii. 17. Be-neth þat hous … was housyng be þe ground, in whech dwelt coynoures of siluyr, and wroute þere ful bisily.

1552–3.  in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 130. Taylours woorking by greate or taske woork.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 10. Rude Mechanicals, That worke for bread vpon Athenian stals.

1612.  S. Rid, Art of Jugling, C 4. The … matters wherevpon Iuglers worke vpon, and shew their feates.

1676.  Marvell, Mr. Smirke, I 4 b. Did not St. Paul himself, being a Tentmaker,… work of his trade … to get his living?

1702.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3809/8. He [sc. a glover] wought in Colemans-alley.

1704.  De Foe, Giving Alms no Charity (1859), 58. ’Tis the men that wont work, not the men that can get no work, which makes the numbers of our poor.

1771.  Goldsm., Hist. Eng., III. 326. He wrought for some days in the habit of a peasant, cutting faggots in a wood.

1854.  H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., ii. (1858), 35. The farmers for whom he wrought.

1866.  Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, xi. He’s one of the Company you work under.

1879.  Lubbock, Sci. Lect., ii. 34. Ants work not only all day, but in warm weather often all night too.

1883.  Swinburne, Misc. (1886), 117. It was not the aim of Wordsworth to work on the same lines, to rule in the same province as do these.

1898.  ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, iv. 40. It is he who has made the discovery upon which we are working.

  b.  const. in († with) the material upon which labor is expended in some business or manufacture.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 54. Than Iupiter began to lerne spynne and to werke in the silke. Ibid. (1474), Chesse, III. iii. (1883), 93. Thise … ben named drapers … for so moche as they werke wyth wolle.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Plasma, the warke of a potter, or of hym that worketh in erthe.

1539.  Bible (Great), Isa. xix. 9. They that worke in flaxe.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. vi. 223. The veine of Tinne … is … rough and very painfull to worke in.

1759.  R. Smith, Harmonics (ed. 2), 176. Any man who works true in brass may easily apply it [sc. this mechanism] … to any harpsichord ready made.

1869.  Boutell, Arms & Armour, ii. 38. The Greeks of that age … were able to temper it [sc. iron], and they had actually commenced working in it.

  c.  spec. of sporting dogs. (Cf. 12 g.)

1832.  [see WORKING vbl. sb. 1].

1874.  Kennel Club Stud Bk., 165. Bruce and Rob Roy … both worked in good style.

1874.  Carpenter, Mental Phys., I. ii. § 3 (1879), 104. Young Pointers and Retrievers, when first taken into the field, will often ‘work’ as well as if they had been long well trained.

  27.  To perform the work proper or incidental to one’s business or avocation; to operate or practise in a professional way. Obs. exc. as in b.

1340.  Ayenb., 174. Þe leche ne may naȝt werche mid þe zike bote-yef he yzi his wonde.

a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 45. Wiþ som men it is to wirche wiþ cauteries.

1471.  Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 233. Iupiter … wrought in his science and made his charmes.

a. 1500.  in Arnolde, Chron., 63 b/2. Wan y^e mone is … in cankro Leone or Libra it is good [to] wurch in trees that bethe newe sprongen.

  b.  Said esp. of the performance of artistic work or the practice of an artist. † Worked upon, † about: decorated or ornamented, e.g., with embroidery, engraving, or the like; also fig. Worked over: having the surface remodelled or redecorated.

1539.  Bible (Great), Ps. xlv. 10. A vesture of gold (wrought about with dyuerse colours).

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, II. xxii. (1912), 291. Her apparrell of white, wrought upon with broken knots.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. i. 200. How lik’st thou this picture?… Wrought he not well that painted it?

1638.  Junius, Paint. Ancients, 102. Exercising his scholars … in the necessary rudiments … before he would suffer them … to worke in colours.

1706.  trans. De Piles’ Art Painting, 336. He work’d also in Sculpture.

1733.  Sch. Miniature, 42. When you work after Prints.

1786.  Strutt, Biogr. Dict. Engravers, II. 422. This artist worked with the graver only.

1874.  J. H. Pollen, Anc. & Mod. Furniture S. Kens. Mus., 131. The work is profusely gilt and worked over with tooling.

1875.  Fortnum, Maiolica, iv. 39. He worked about 1550.

1883.  T. Westwood & Satchell, Bibl. Piscat., 219. The scroll has … been ‘worked over,’ much to its detriment.

1889.  R. Beydall, Art in Scot., vii. 125. The students wrought in the academy daily at painting.

  fig.  1875.  Whitney, Life Lang., iii. 39. For a long time there has existed … a tendency to work over such verbs, abandoning their irregularly varying inflection, and reducing them to accordance with the more numerous class of the ‘regularly’ inflected.

  28.  Math., etc. To proceed (in a particular way) in calculation; to perform a calculation; to go through the process of solving a problem.

c. 1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., II. § 5. Whan þat the degree of thy sonne falleth by-twixe two Almykanteras…, thow Most werken in this wise.

c. 1425.  Crafte Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.), 23. Here he teches how þou schalt wyrch in þis craft. Þou schalt multiplye þe last figure [etc.].

1610.  A. Hopton, Baculum Geodæticum, 35. For the distance of sides of Triangles, worke thus.

1614.  Handson, trans. Barth. Pitisco’s Trigonom., II. 20. If you worke by the table of latitudes … the difference of longitude will be 68 deg.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. xii. 62. You must work as if the Piece were fortified no more than only so much as the thinnest part of the Metal is.

1766.  Complete Farmer, s.v. Surveying, 7 G 2/1. If instead of squaring the half feet, you square the half yards…, and work with them, you will attain the same end without any regardable difference.

1823.  J. Guy, Tutor’s Assist., 79. Work for the tare and trett as before.

  29.  Of a substance (corresp. to various senses in 12); usually with qualifying adv. or phr.: To behave in a particular way while being worked. See also 39 d.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, vi. 136. Whan the yron is well hoote, hit werketh the better.

1662.  Gerbier, Princ., 24. Portland Stone works well.

1676.  J. Smith, Art of Painting, ii. 16. Vermillion…. If it be ground fine … no Colour works better.

1764.  Museum Rust., III. xlviii. 205. Whilst in the quarry, it works better than after it has been exposed to the sun.

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 732. Yellow ochre … is … much used [sc. in painting], as it works very freely.

1877.  Paper Hanger, etc., 68. Distemper mixed with jellied size will lay on better … than when the size is used hot. Colour mixed on the former plan works cool and floats nicely, while the latter works dry, and drags and gathers.

  30.  With on or upon († into, † of, † to, with arch.): To operate upon, produce an effect upon, take effect on, affect, influence: a. physically or generally.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, IV. 700. Of the hevyn … How that the disposicioune Suld apon thingis virk heir doune.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 219. He toke poison … but … it would not worke vpon hym.

c. 1560.  A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), iii. 55. As for a weddow, wirk weill on hir wame, I knaw no craft sall cause hir lufe ȝow bettir.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xvii. 314. This fault cannot bee imputed to the body…: neither can it be imputed to any infection receiued first from the body; for the Soule could not be wrought into by the body.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., II. iii. 188. I know my Physicke will worke with him.

1627.  Hakewill, Apol., IV. xiv. § 5 (1630), 514. The same [sun-] beams exhale both stinking vapours out of the dunghills and sweete savours out of flowres, the beame is every way the same which workes vpon them, only the difference of the subjects … is it that … diversifies the effects.

1730.  W. Burdon, Gentl. Pocket-Farrier, 75. When a Purge works … too strong upon him … give him an Ounce of Venice Treacle.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, IV. 137. Cyril, with whom the bell-mouth’d glass had wrought,… began To troll a … tavern-catch.

  b.  mentally or morally; sometimes, to do something in order to affect, strive to influence (with to = LABOUR v. 13); sometimes, to influence successfully, prevail upon, induce, persuade: = 14 a. (Often in indirect passive.)

1616.  W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. ii. 737. Which wrought so on the Swains, they could not smother Their sighes.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., IV. 140. Sir Thomas … seriously wrought with the Grand Signior and his Counsell, to haue had him restored againe to his Lands.

1647.  in Verney Mem. (1907), I. 435. Shee cries and tackes on … but all we can doo will not worke of her.

1662.  G. Atwell, Faithfull Serveyour, 4. He works to the Lady [owner] to send another to measure it [sc. the farm]…. He prevails with her, she sends another.

1669.  Pepys, Diary, 10 May (1879), VI. 79. The King may yet be wrought upon … to bring changes in our Office.

a. 1715.  Burnet, Own Time (1823), I. 339. But he would not be wrought on.

1799.  Washington, Lett., Writ. 1893, XIV. 184. He was not to be worked upon by Intriguers.

1823.  Scott, Quentin D., xxviii. Sweetest Lady, work with thy child, that he will pardon all past sins.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 72. She … worked on his feelings by pretending to be ill.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xiii. 266. He had many minds to work upon and to win over to his cause.

  31.  To ache, hurt: = WARK v. Obs. exc. dial.

a. 1400[?].  Morte Arth., 2688. Thoffe my schouldire be schrede,… And the wielde of myne arme werkkes a littille.

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 531. Sa sare werkis hire þe wame … Þat all scho dredis hire dede.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 1814. I felte such wo, my wounde ay wrought.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, XXI. v. 848. I may not stonde, myn hede werches soo.

1808.  Jamieson, To werk, to ache.

  32.  Of liquor: To ferment.

1570.  Timme, trans. Marlorat’s Expos. Matt. ix. 17. When the newe wyne worketh or spourgeth, the vessels breake.

1577.  Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. 183 b. The Hony is … suffered to stand vncouered a fewe dayes tyll it haue wrought, and cast vp a loft all his drags.

1673.  Phil. Trans., VIII. 6021. About 7 or 8 dayes after the Must hath been thus boyled it begins to work.

1715.  Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 57. The tubs wherein the Wine is working.

1857.  Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (1862), ii. § 5. 129. The liquid becomes turbid, and small bubbles rise to the surface; or in popular language, it begins to work or to ferment.

  fig.  1602.  2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., I. ii. (Arb.), 9. Such barmy heads wil alwaies be working.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xxxiv. Men’s brains are working like yeast.

  **  To move in a particular way or direction.

  33.  To go or move along, or in a particular course; to make one’s (or its) way, take one’s (or its) course; now usually, to make way slowly, laboriously, with some exertion or difficulty, or in an indirect course. (Usually with adv. or phr. expressing the direction or course: see also 36 b, 38 b, 39 c.)

c. 1400.  Treat. Astron., 3 (MS. Add. Bodl. B. 17). Therbe … .vij. planetis that meuyn and werkyn in the .vij. heuenes.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, III. ii. (1883), 87. Fortune hath of no thinge so grete playsir as for to torne & werke all way.

1535.  Coverdale, Jonah i. 13. The see wrought [Luther fuhr, Vulg. ivit, LXX. ἐπορεύετο] so, & was so troublous agaynst them.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, V. 891. The raging Fires … lurking in the Seams,… Work on their way, amid the smouldring Tow.

1802.  G. Colman, Broad Grins, Elder Bro. (1819), 118. Being Bacchi plenus,—full of wine,—… He work’d, with sinuosities, along.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, l. [The dog] worked round and round him, as if … undecided at what particular point to go in for the assault.

1862.  Pycroft, Cricket Tutor, 57. A ball working away only a little way to the leg.

1878.  Lady Brassey, Voy. in ‘Sunbeam,’ i. 2. After midnight … the wind worked gradually round … and blew directly in our teeth.

1898.  G. A. B. Dewar, In Pursuit Trout, 26. The trout was working up stream, always keeping under the bank.

1912.  Times, 19 Oct., 7/3. The Russians suffered most when they crossed the mountains in terrible snowstorms in January, and worked round to the rear of the Turkish army.

  b.  To make one’s (or its) way slowly or with effort through something, as in penetrating gradually through a substance, burrowing in the ground, etc.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxix. 132. So lang sall þis fox wirk in þe erthe þat at þe last he schall comme oute amang þis folk.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 12007. All the cite … þai set vppon fyre,… Wroght vnder walles, walt hom to ground.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 47. Sum says it is a mater that wirkes out of the stanes.

1691.  in Archaeologia, XII. 189. Sometimes the coneys work under the wall into the garden.

1766.  Complete Farmer, s.v. Walk 7 Z 3/2. The bottom of the walks should be laid with rubbish, coarse gravel, &c.,… and beaten down close, to prevent the worms from working through it.

  c.  Naut. Of a sailing vessel: To sail in a particular course, to make sail; esp. to beat to windward, to tack. See also 39 c.

1633.  T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., II. xii. 204. The shipping … had direction to worke about to another Creake.

1704.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4054/1. Perceiving … that they wrought from us, we followed them … with all the Sail we could make.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., II. viii. 223. She had sprung her fore-top-mast, which had disabled her from working to windward.

1768.  Phil. Trans., LX. 116. A little before noon we weighed, and worked up the river.

1823.  Scoresby, Jrnl., 2. We reached down the river, and, on the ebb, worked out of the Rock Channel.

1836.  Marryat, Pirate, xvi. The Comus … worked, in short tacks, outside the reef.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxiii. (1856), 184. We are working, i.e., beating our way in the narrow leads … between the main ice and the drift.

  d.  To proceed in a particular direction in some operation.

1877.  Paper Hanger, etc., 26. The paper hanger generally works from left to right.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Working home, working toward the main shaft in extracting ore or coal.

1910.  F. Fawcett, in Folk-Lore (1912), XXIII. 39. He is given several sharp blows on the ribs, beginning under the armpit and working downwards.

  e.  transf. and fig. in various connections. See also 39 c.

1691.  T. Tryon, Art Brewing (ed. 3), 49. So soon as it [your Corn] begins to come, or as some calls it Work.

1848.  Lytton, Harold, IX. iii. A silent war between the two for mastery was working on.

1857.  Mrs. Gaskell, C. Brontë, I. ii. 27. Their religion did not work down into their lives.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. ix. Hoping as Our Johnny would work round [= recover].

1883.  Sidgwick, Fallacies, II. iv. 205. Hence … the name [sc. demonstration] often works round again, in popular usage, to mean proof which is ‘sufficiently’ or ‘practically’ conclusive.

1895.  ‘Percy Hemingway,’ Out of Egypt, II. 158. A new conversation starts up every hour, and debateable points acquire a fresh interest because there is never time to work to a conclusion.

  34.  To move restlessly, violently or convulsively; to be in a state of agitation or commotion; to toss, seethe, rage (as a stormy sea, etc.); to struggle; to twitch; Naut. of a ship, to strain or ‘labor’ so that the fastenings become slack (cf. 35); so of an engine or carriage (see quots. 1791, 1892 s.v. WORKING vbl. sb. 12). Also fig. of thought or feeling; sometimes with allusion to 32.

1581, 1582.  [see WORKING vbl. sb. 10, ppl. a. 4].

1608.  Shaks., Per., III. i. 48. The sea workes hie.

1652.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Relat. Journ. Wales (1859), 11. The well … doth continually work and bubble with extream violence.

1689.  H. Pitman, Relat., in Arb., Garner, VII. 351. Our little vessel … wrought so exceedingly by reason of the great motion of the sea, that we could not possibly make her tight.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1776), s.v., A ship is … said to work, when she strains and labours heavily in a tempestuous sea, so as to loosen her joints or timbers.

1770.  Wesley, Jrnl., 4 July. She … wrought, like one strangled, in her breast and throat.

1815.  Jane Austen, Emma, I. xiii. With men he can be … unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, every feature works.

1840.  Dickens, Old Cur. Shop, lviii. Shaking his head, and working with both his hands as if he were clearing away ten thousand cobwebs.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xi. 25. While everything was working, and cracking, strained to the utmost.

1886.  Stevenson, Kidnapped, 5. With his face all working with sorrow.

  fig.  1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 215. While thoughts like these were working in the minds of many Dissenters.

1859.  Tennyson, Elaine, 1300. Sea was her wrath, yet working after storm.

1865.  C. Stanford, Symb. Christ, vi. (1878), 161. Tempests of feeling often work beneath an unchanged face.

  35.  With complement: To move irregularly or unsteadily so as to become out of gear.

1770.  Luckombe, Hist. Printing, 325. [To] hinder the Press from working into a twisting position.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxv. 83. The anchor on the lee bow had worked loose, and was thumping the side.

1874.  J. D. Heath, Croquet-player, 26. If the handle [of the mallet] be properly wedged into the head, it ought never to work loose.

  III.  With adverbs, in special senses.

  36.  Work in. a. trans. To insert, introduce, incorporate (in various connections: see 9, 12 d).

1675.  A. Browne, App. Art Paint., 11. Working in, driving, and sweetening the same Colours one into another.

1728.  E. Smith, Compl. Housew. (ed. 2), 129. Work in three quarters of a pound of Sugar.

1826.  Margaret Crosfield, in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc., XX. 93. They [the 5 American Epistles] are beautiful to read, abound with choice passages of Scripture well wrought in.

1847.  Helps, Friends in C., I. viii. 124. I would try and work in the old good thing with the new.

1870.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (ed. 2), II. App. 584. A … tale in which several particulars … are worked in with a lofty contempt for chronology.

  b.  intr. To make one’s (or its) way in. lit. and fig. See 33.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., II. i. 116. These … sudden gusts make it difficult for ships to work in with the wind off shore.

1847.  Helps, Friends in C., II. i. 12. All he meets seems to work in with, and assimilate itself to, his own peculiar subject.

1918.  Westm. Gaz., 29 April, 5/4. Yorkshire troops … threw the enemy out of the village … but the enemy again worked in.

  37.  Work off. * a. trans. To print off (as from a plate); esp. to print in final form, so as to be ready for publication or distribution.

1662.  Evelyn, Sculptura, 36. The very first … who published any works of this kind under their names, wrought off by the Rolling-Presse.

1672.  Wood, Life (O.H.S.), II. 247. Wee were then looking over and correcting the story of John Wycleve in ‘Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon.’ before it was to be wrought off from the press.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Laconics, Wks. 1711, IV. 7. That … execrable Dog of a Printer … has work’d off the last Sheet … without sending me a Proof.

1708.  T. Hearne, Collect., 11 April (O.H.S.), II. 102. Mr. Thorpe gave but 10 pence per hundred for working off his Plates to Schutzer.

1754.  Gentl. Mag., XXIV. 58/1. An accident … to the Plate prevented a sufficient number [of etchings] from being wrought off.

1868.  E. Edwards, Ralegh, II. Introd. p. lxxxi. By an accident of a miscarriage of proofs in the Post Office, the three letters … were worked off, prior to correction of the press.

1882.  Pebody, Engl. Journalism, xv. (1883), 107. The printers … often found themselves working oil papers half through the night and all through the day.

  † b.  To make and throw off. Obs.

1695–6.  Act 7 & 8 Will. III., c. 20 § 3. A … profitable Invention … for the … more speedy … knitting of … Stockings … whereby great Quantities are wrought off in a little tyme.

1739.  Melmoth, Fitzosb. Lett., lxii. (1749), II. 118. I am willing enough to join with you in thinking, that [the souls of both sexes] may be wrought off from different models.

  c.  To perpetrate, ‘play off.’

1891.  Nat. Gould, Double Event, xvi. A nice little swindle you worked off on me that time.

  ** d.  To take off or away by a gradual process, effect a riddance of; to get rid of, disburden oneself of, free oneself from, by some continuous action or effort.

1678.  Rymer, Trag. Last Age, 83. This Scene having wrought off the Remains of Phedra’s frenzy, in the next she seems more calm.

1702.  A. De la Pryme, Lett., 27 March, in Diary (Surtees), 257. Returning to his labour,… he sweat and wrought it [sc. canine madness] of [= off] without any physic.

1737.  Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1756), I. 216. Nature is working off some latent Enemy.

1836.  Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxv. You … take some of his quack medicine, and then he will allow you a run on shore to work it off.

1873.  Symonds, Grk. Poets, vii. 194. Should a man arise capable of seeing rightly and living purely, he may work off the curse.

1880.  Mrs. Lynn Linton, Rebel of Family, x. So full of thoughts and energies she does not know how to work them all off.

  † e.  To draw off or dissuade (a person) from a certain course. Cf. 14 a. Obs.

1655.  Stanley, Hist. Philos., I. III. xvi. (1687), 94/1. Glauco before he was 20. years old had … aimed at some great office in the Common-wealth, not to be wrought off from this fancy … untill addrest by some friends to Socrates, who made him acknowledge his own error.

  † f.  To take or tear off by continuous application of force. Obs.

1703.  S. Parker, trans. Eusebius, VIII. 146. When the Flesh of her [Theodosia’s] Sides and Breasts had been wrought off with Pincers, she was Sentenc’d to the Sea, having all the while preserv’d in her Looks a very visible Alacrity and Satisfaction.

  g.  To finish working at; to dispose of and get done with.

1800.  J. Haigh, Dyer’s Assist., 33. When a vat has been heated two or three times, and a good part has been worked off, the same liquor is often preserved.

1892.  W. S. Gilbert, Mountebanks, I. Giuseppe, he’s to be married to-morrow, Luigi on Thursday, and so on until we are all worked off.

1920.  Westm. Gaz., 2 Dec., 4/2. When the existing contracts for new steamships are worked off.

  h.  To put to death; to hang. slang.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lxiii. He was ready for working off.

  38.  Work out. * a. trans. To bring, fetch, or get out by some process or course of action; to get rid of, or effect a riddance of; to expel, deliver, efface, etc.

1595.  Daniel, Civ. Wars, V. lxxi. These people-minions they must fall To worke out vs, to worke themselues int’ all.

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xxii. § 10. That … you may worke out the knots and Stondes of the mind.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 226. If the Fox be in the earth,… they take this course to worke him out.

1648.  Gage, West Ind., 2. Such plenary Indulgences, which may … work that soul out, which lyeth … in the deepest pit of Purgatory.

1660.  Dryden, Astræa Redux, 275. Tears of Joy … Work out and expiate our former Guilt.

1691.  Hartcliffe, Virtues, p. x. Strong Bodies will work out the Poyson they take, by degrees.

1758.  Hist., in Ann. Reg., 3/2. To work out the old servants of the Crown, in order to make way for a more uniform system.

1874.  Willshire, Anc. Prints, iii. 91. The engraver of metal plates has not rested satisfied with the chafing-tool, [etc.] … in working out their substance, but has had recourse to corrosives … to bite … away the metal.

  b.  intr. To make its way out, esp. from being imbedded or inclosed in something; to become gradually loose and come out: cf. 33, 35.

  In quot. 1698, to lose its effect gradually.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XXX. xiii. II. 394. To draw forth spils of bones, and make them to worke out.

1683.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, ii. ¶ 1. Underlays … are often apt to work out, and … subject it to an unstable and loose position.

1698.  Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 127. The Liquor working out by his Walking, he began to grow weary.

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 151. Forelock, a small wedge of iron driven through a hole near the end of iron pins to keep them from working out.

1832.  Marryat, N. Forster, iii. Fresh splinters of the bone continually worked out.

  c.  trans. To work (a mine, etc.) until it yields no more; to exhaust by working.’

1545.  in G. C. Bond, Early Hist. Mining (1924), 8. [The parties shall cause all such coalpits as shall hereafter be] clenewrought out and gettyn [to be] caste in and stopped.

1827.  Scott, Chron. Canongate, vii. The Highlands were indeed a rich mine; but they have, I think, been fairly wrought out.

1857.  Westgarth, Victoria & Gold Mines, 226. The diggings, the greater part of which in the immediate vicinity had been abandoned as ground ‘worked out,’ to use the digger’s phrase.

1906.  Hockaday, in Vict. County Hist., Cornwall, I. 520/1. As one part [of the rock] was worked out it was filled in with rubble from the new excavations.

  d.  To wear out, esp. by labor, or by continued application of force. Obs. or rare.

1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Ouvrer, Le temps ouvre. Time workes (or weares) out euerie thing.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lvii. During what long thankless nights had she worked out her fingers for little Georgy.

  e.  To discharge (a debt or obligation) by labor instead of a money payment.

1670.  Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 354. Who cannot pay his 5s. … shall worke it out in the House of Correction.

1773.  Pennsylv. Gaz., 28 April, 3/2. Whereas I, the subscriber, by my own foolishness, am indebted £ 28 : 7 : 6,… I am desirous to engage and work it out.

1828.  Kennedy & Grainger, Tenancy of Land, 297. The highway-tax is most frequently worked out.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xiv. Mind you’re here, my lad, to work it out.

  ** f.  To bring about, effect, produce or procure (a result) by labor or effort; to carry out, accomplish (a plan or purpose).

  In quot. 1597, to preserve to the end.

1534.  Tindale, Phil. ii. 12. Worke out youre awne saluacion with feare and tremblynge.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 182. We … Knew that we ventur’d on such dangerous Seas, That if we wrought out life, was ten to one.

1621.  T. Granger, Expos. Eccles., vi. II. 148. Doth he not most often by his wit worke out his woe? and by his strength procure his owne ruine?

1633.  Bp. Hall, Hard Texts, Hosea x. 11. Hee loves to injoy blessings, but not to earne, and worke them out.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 225. To go about to work out true peace by … compliances with men, is an endlesse work.

1805.  Wordsw., Waggoner, IV. 118. When the malicious Fates are bent On working out an ill intent.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, II. 75. O lift your natures up:… work out your freedom.

1869.  Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 141. The natural tendency of their mode of life … worked itself out as time went on.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., ii. § 7. 95. The fortunes of England were being slowly wrought out in every incident.

  g.  To go through a process of calculation or consideration so as to arrive at the solution of (a problem or question), to solve; also, to reckon out, calculate. Cf. 13.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, xix. Day after day, Old Sol and Captain Cuttle kept her reckoning and worked out her course, with the chart spread before them.

1849.  C. Brontë, Shirley, vi. While she completed the exercise, or worked out the sum (for Mdlle. Moore taught her arithmetic, too).

1856.  Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. xviii. She tried to work out the question in her own mind, whether her eagerness for classical learning was a wrong sort of ambition.

1891.  Speaker, 2 May, 533/1. A practised novel-reader could probably work out the problem and complete the plot.

  h.  intr. for pass.: (a) of a course of events, narrative, etc.: To proceed so as to issue in a particular result; (b) with at, of a quantity: To amount to (so much) when reckoned up, to ‘come to.’

1885.  Ld. Coleridge, in Law Rep., 14 Q. Bench Div. 826. The justice of that course, and how it works out is shewn … by the late Lord Chief Justice.

1887.  Spectator, 3 Sept., 1173/2. It is simply impossible to tell from month to month how the situation in Ireland will work out.

1898.  Tit-Bits, 16 July, 311/3. This [quantity of tea] when infused works out at about 4,000,000 gallons.

  i.  trans. To fashion by cutting out, excavation, or the like. ? Obs.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 68. When I had wrought out some Boards…, I made large Shelves.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VIII. 108. The old one then, with as much assiduity as it before worked out its hole, now closes the mouth of the passage.

  j.  To bring to a fuller or finished state; to produce or express in a complete form or in detail; to develop, elaborate.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xvii. To see how Marlow, Shakspeare, and other play artificers, work out their fanciful plots.

1861.  Whyte-Melville, Good for Nothing, xxxix. A picture … worked out with a skill and knowledge of light and shade.

1865.  J. Fergusson, Hist. Archit., II. I. ii. I. 380. [Italy] did not work out the Basilican type for herself.

1880.  McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lxvii. 518. The theory [of the survival of the fittest] … was worked out with the most minute and elaborate care.

1882.  Besant, All Sorts, xxviii. An idea … which … works itself out in his brain.

1895.  F. Harrison, in 19th Cent., Aug., 217. This important and far-reaching truth is worked out by Mr. Mallock with much acuteness.

  k.  To study or investigate completely; to work through. Obs. or rare.

1830.  H. N. Coleridge, Grk. Poets (1846), 10. After a boy has worked out a book or given portion of a classic poem.

  *** l.  Pugilism. intr. To box for practice, as distinguished from engaging in a set contest.

1927.  Daily Express, 27 May, 13/7. I saw Barber work out in the gymnasium … boxing four rounds with Young Johnny Brown.

  39.  Work up. * † a. trans. To build up, construct, ‘raise’ (a wall, etc.): usually with special reference to the actual process. Cf. 3 c. Obs.

  Occas. to build up material around (quot. 1712).

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1542. The walles [were] vp wroght, wonder to se.

c. 1435.  Torr. Portugale, 1532. The Giaunt wrought vp his wall And laid stonys gret and small.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 259. In working up the Walls of a Building, do not work any Wall above 3 foot high before you work up the next adjoining Wall.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 119. Set this pole very upright,… and work up the foot of it with Rubble…, for fear its own Weight, or the Wind, should throw it down.

1735.  J. Price, Stone-Br. Thames, 8. Strong Cross-Walls … must be work’d up to the Top of the Crown of the Arches.

  † b.  To lift or raise (a weight) by labor; to hoist. Obs. rare.

c. 1610.  [see 20].

  c.  intr. To make one’s (or its) way up, esp. against impediment or indirectly; to ascend, advance; also fig. Cf. 33, 33 c, 33 e.

1667.  Milton, P. L., V. 478. Till body up to spirit work.

1790.  Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., II. 194. He ordered the Queenborough ahead to observe their motions, and continued endeavouring to work up after them.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew., xxvi. Nearer and louder came the oar-roll, like thunder working up from the east.

1882.  Daily Tel., 28 Oct., 2/4. The Torridge is in full flood, and plenty of salmon are working up to spawn.

1899.  Kipling, Stalky, i. 27. He was merely working up to a peroration.

1903.  G. H. Lorimer, Lett. Self-Made Merch., viii. 109. He was in New York and drawing ten thousand a year, which was more than he could have worked up to in the leather business in a century.

1916.  Ld. E. Hamilton, 1st Seven Divisions (1917), 41–2. An additional flanking corps that was said to be working up from the direction of Tournai.

  ** d.  trans. To stir up, mix, or compound, as a plastic substance or substances: cf. 12 d. Also intr. for pass.: cf. 29.

c. 1450.  M. E. Med. Bk. (Heinrich), 127. Let hit stande nyne dayes & nyne nyȝtes, & þan go werche hit vp, & let frye hit in apanne.

c. 1550.  Lloyd, Treas. Health, V 2. Take … Frankencense, [and] as much oyle as shalbe thought sufficient, make it and worke it vp well.

1584.  Cogan, Haven Health (1636), 53. I advise all students that be troubled with wind … to cause Fennell seeds, Anise or Careway to bee wrought up in their bread.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xviii. A stew of tripe,… and cow-heel,… and bacon,… and steak,… and peas, cauliflowers, new potatoes, and sparrow-grass, all working up together in one delicious gravy.

1855.  Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 213. Any hard material, that does not soon work up into mud or grind into dust.

1868.  Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women, xi. Hannah had left a pan of bread to rise, Meg had worked it up early,… and forgotten it.

  e.  To make up (material) into something by labor (cf. 8); also, to bring into some condition, esp. so as to be ready for use (cf. 12 l).

1591.  in G. C. Bond, Early Hist. Mining (1924), 11. The fyner and hammerman for working up the said 50 tonns of barr iron.

1698.  Acts Massachusetts (1724), 116. No Person … shall work up into Shoes … any Leather that is not tanned and curried in Manner as aforesaid.

1739.  Labelye, Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge, 60. Fir … Timber was chosen as being … the easiest work’d up.

1768.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 325. Seneca … starting a doubt whether God made His own materials, or only worked up such as He found already in being.

1797.  Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Sel. Wks. (1892), 236. The raw and prepared material [sc. silk] … is worked up in various ways.

1844.  G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., Introd. 7. The straw-plait … is wrought up into hats and bonnets.

1869.  W. T. Thornton, On Labour, III. v. 323. A builder … willing to keep his men employed during the bad weather … allowed them to work up a quantity of stone to be ready for use in the spring.

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 106. Mediastinal sarcoma … spreads in upon and works up the pulmonary tissue in an irregular and crab-like manner, simulating cancer.

  f.  gen., or in reference to something immaterial: To make up, develop, expand, enlarge (to or into something).

1693.  Creech, in Dryden’s Juvenal, xiii. (1697), 336. For he that but conceives a Crime in thought, Contracts the danger of an Actual Fault: Then what must he expect that still proceeds To finish Sin, and work up Thoughts to Deeds?

1712.  Budgell, Spect., No. 307, ¶ 2. Your agreeable manner of working up Trifles.

1820.  W. Irving, Sketch Bk., Rural Life (1821), I. 112. A spray could not tremble in the breeze—a leaf could not rustle to the ground—…; but it has been noticed by these … observers, and wrought up into some beautiful morality.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., III. xiii. 278. All this could easily be wrought up into a claim.

1907.  Mrs. C. Kernahan, Fraud, iv. 28. He had got a dramatic situation … which he meant Danvers to work up.

  g.  To bring by labor or effort to or into a higher state or condition. Cf. k below.

1668.  Dryden, Dram. Poesy, 66. This last is indeed the representation of Nature, but ’tis Nature wrought up to an higher pitch.

1760.  D. Webb, Inq. Beauties of Painting, vii. 158. The expression in this statue [Laocoon], is worked up to such a just extremity, there reigns through it such an air of truth, that, as the least addition would be extravagance, so every diminution would be a defect: We trace in it the labour of years, we feel from it the impression of a minute.

1861.  Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., i. The kitchen and buttery were worked up to a high state of perfection.

1875.  E. White, Life in Christ, III. xviii. (1878), 237. A man can work himself up into an immortal condition of ‘equality with the angels’ … no more than an ox or an ass can work himself up into humanity.

  h.  To make up, form, construct, compose, produce (something material or immaterial): with special reference to the process, or to the labor, exertion or care expended upon it. Cf. 3–6, 10.

1710.  Addison, Tatler, No. 153, ¶ 1. An eminent artist, who wrought up his pictures with the greatest accuracy. Ibid. (1713), Cato, I. iv. The Sun … Works up more fire and colour in their cheeks.

1820.  Q. Mus. Mag., II. 60. Fugues wrought up with infinite art, and little effect.

1885.  Manch. Weekly Times, 7 March, 5/5. I have perhaps worked up this picture a little too elaborately.

1897.  Henty, On the Irrawaddy, 120. My uncle is working up a very good business.

1911.  ‘Geo. A. Birmingham,’ Lighter Side Irish Life, i. 9. He stood for hours in front of the looking-glass working up appropriate gestures.

  i.  Naut. To set to or keep at needless and disagreeable hard work as a punishment. Cf. 19.

1840.  R. H. Dana [see HAZE v.¹ 2]. Ibid. (1841), Seaman’s Man., Dict., Work up..., a phrase for keeping a crew constantly at work upon needless matters, and in all weathers, and beyond their usual hours, for punishment.

1897.  F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 208. The hands no longer felt that they were continually being ‘worked up’ or ‘hazed’ for the sole, diabolical satisfaction of keeping them ‘at it.’

  j.  To ‘get up’ (a subject) by mental labor; to study carefully and in detail; to master by research. Cf. 12 k.

Mod.  I’m working up mathematics for my examination. He’s working up the history of the period for his new book.

  *** k.  trans. To bring by effort, or by some influence, into a particular state of mind or feeling, esp. one of strong emotion; to stir up, arouse, excite, incite (the mind, imagination, etc., or the person) to or into a state or action; to induce or persuade by effort to do something; without const., to put into a state of excitement, excite, agitate. Also refl. Cf. 14 a, b.

1688–9.  Stillingfl., Serm., 1 Pet. iv. 18 (1698), III. 120. It is no very hard Matter to work up a heated and devout Imagination to the Fancy of Raptures and Ecstasies.

1698.  Collier, Immor. Stage, 25. To work up their Lewdness with Verse and Musick.

1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 172, ¶ 2. We cannot but tremble to consider, what we are capable of being wrought up to.

1752.  Young, Brothers, IV. i. When I have work’d him up to violence.

1831.  G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, xxx. His whole powers and energies had been wrought up to bear it firmly and calmly.

1842.  Lover, Handy Andy, x. Tell him magnificent lies—astonish him with grand materials for a note-book and work him up to publish.

1874.  Burnand, My Time, xxxi. 306. My father had tried to work himself up into a passion.

1906.  Beatrice Harraden, Scholar’s Dau., xiii. Every time I speak of it, I get fearfully worked up.

  l.  To put into commotion, stir up, agitate (physically). rare.

1705.  Addison, Italy, 54. This Lake [Garda] perfectly resembles a Sea, when it is work’d up by Storms.

  m.  intr. To be gradually stirred up or excited; to proceed or advance to a state of agitation or commotion. Cf. 34, and c above.

1681.  Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 141. So, several Factions from this first Ferment, Work up to Foam.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 36, ¶ 3. You know a premeditated Quarrel usually begins and works up with the words, Some people.