a. [f. WORK sb. + -FUL. Cf. OE. weorcfull ‘operosus.’

1

  † 1.  Active, operative. Obs.

2

1340.  Ayenb., 199. Þe uirtues huerof we habbeþ y-speke aboue be-longeþ to þe uerste line þet is ycleped workuol.

3

1552.  Huloet, Warkefull, operosus.

4

1565.  Harding, Confut., II. xiii. 97. Seest thou then how workefull is the word of Christ?

5

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, v. 60. In the most single essence of God, there is a workfull power.

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1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., To Rdr. The Philosophy of our day and Land being so much workful as the world knows it to be.

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  2.  Full of (hard) work; hard-working.

8

1854.  Dickens, Hard T., I. v. You saw nothing in Coketown but what was severely workful.

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1875.  Holyoake, Hist Co-oper. Eng., I. 353. Being very watchful and workful as a secretary.

10

1891.  Review Rev., 15 Oct., 352/2. Seven happy workful months spent in Paris.

11

  Hence Workfulness, † activity; laborious activity.

12

1573.  Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc., 17. In the meane tyme his workfulnesse perceth euen into ye uery Church.

13

1854.  Tait’s Mag., XXI. 459. He might have seen, in any Coketown of the manufacturing districts, an allowance of what is playful, to compensate for its workfulness.

14

1903.  J. C. Smith, in Robt. Wallace: Life & Last Leaves, vi. 174. He resigned such a position of usefulness and workfulness.

15