[f. WORK v. + -ING2. (In several uses formerly often hyphened to the sb.)] That works, in various senses.
1. Of a person, personal attribute, etc.: Active, operative; energetic. Obs. or arch.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, II. v. (Skeat), l. 43. He … that neither han lyf ne soule, ne ordinaunce of werchinge limmes.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. iii. (1912), 20. A woman … of so working a minde,… it was happie shee tooke a good course.
1635. F. White, Sabbath, Ep. Ded. 9. They command whatsoever their own working-heads affect.
1646. J. Whitaker, Uzziah, 14. He had a working head, and a dextrous hand.
1681. Flavel, Meth. Grace, xxviii. 476. The working-heads of the enemies of that State.
1706. ? Prior, Ep. Elector Bavaria, 58, Wks. 1907, II. 371. Preluding cannons tell th’ approaching storm, And working armies take a dreadful form.
1820. Keats, Ode to Psyche, 60. A rosy sanctuary will I dress With the wreath’d trellis of a working brain.
† b. Of a thing (concr. or abstr.): Operative, effective. Obs.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., II. iii. You see, my Lord, what woorking woordes he hath.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., Prol. 3. Things … Sad, high, and working, full of State and Woe.
1622. J. Taylor (Water P.), Shilling, B 4. A gentle working Potion.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 49. Childish men, who have not the art to qualifie and prepare these working mineralls.
1654. E. Johnson, Wonder-wrkg. Provid., 16. This was the first working providence of Christ to stir up our English Nation.
a. 1709. J. Lister, Autobiog. (1842), 43. Some working physic that might be likely to … remove the distemper.
2. That works or labors; esp. that works for an employer in a manual or industrial occupation (see also WORKING-CLASS, -MAN).
1639. G. Plattes, Discov. Infin. Treas., Pref. C 4 b. How the working poore may be imployed in these new improvements.
1830. Poor Man’s Guardian, 31 Dec., 4/2. The evils that beset the working population.
1864. Ramsbottom, Phases, 23. Honest wortchin’ folks one sees By scores reawnd th’ Poor-law Office dur.
1871. Smiles, Charac., i. (1876), 25. The common body of working-people.
1913. Macewen, Hist. Ch. Scot., I. xviii. 388. There must have been innumerable parishes which had no working parish priests.
1922. W. P. Ker, Coll. Ess., Molière (1925), I. 352. Respectable advice to working playwrights.
b. In contrast with: (a) ‘master,’ ‘managing,’ etc., in designations of trade or occupation; (b) ‘sleeping,’ in reference to partners in a firm. Also in designations of persons or animals that work or are active in a special way.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4436/3. He is by Trade a Working-Goldsmith.
1793–4. Matthews’s Bristol Directory, 78. Tanner, George, Working-cutler, Maryport-street.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, IV. vii. ¶ 2. I … became the working partner in a new firm.
1839. in Orders of Council Naval Service (1866), I. 478. The Working Petty Officers of the Royal Navy.
1855. Poultry Chron., II. 507. The working Committee of a show.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. vii. A working-jeweller population.
1874. Green, Short Hist., x. § 2. 747. Benjamin Franklin, who had risen from his position of a working printer in Philadelphia to high repute among scientific discoverers.
1898. Daily News, 5 Jan., 2/4. Mr. John Day contributes some working homers [pigeons], wonderful for their speed, such as are used on Government ships.
1908. Church Times, 20 March, 374/1. Working Housekeeper,… required by gentleman, to work … small house.
c. Mil. Working party: a party of men detailed for a special piece of work outside their ordinary duties.
1744. M. Bishop, Life, 204. I mounted Guard as Sergeant upon a working Party, and took them to a Mine, in order to work at a Sap.
1834–47. J. S. Macaulay, Field Fortif. (1851), 171. The men who undertake a surprise may be divided into four parties: 1st, the guides and interpreters; 2nd, the combatants; 3rd, the troops to cover the retreat; 4th, the working party.
d. Of horses and cattle: Employed in work, esp. in agricultural work.
1613. Liber Deposit. infra Archidiacon. Colcestrensem, lf. 29 (MS.). The herbadg or pasture of anye workeing cattell.
1773. Pennsylv. Gaz., 21 April, Suppl. 1/2. To be sold…. several pair of working oxen.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., April, 224. Bean and pease-straw is the customary fodder of the working stock.
c. 1830. Glouc. Farm Rep., 19, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. Two colts are generally bred from the mares to keep up the stock of working-horses.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xiii. Like an old working bullock in a lucerne field.
1908. Animal Managem., 124. A working horse … will … swallow an inordinate quantity of water very rapidly.
e. Of a bee or ant: That is a ‘worker.’
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Queen-bee 6 H 1/2. Not only these common or working bees, but also the drones, or male bees.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxvii. (1818), II. 513. If we suppose them to know that the queen and working-grubs are originally the same.
f. In comb.: Producing, creating.
1595. W. C., Polimanteia (1881), 82. Glittering hate-working gold.
† 3. Aching, throbbing with pain. Obs.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., vi. 8. Sore bonys, & warkand feete.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, III. 204. With mony werkand wound.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), I. 75. Ay quhair tha hit makand ane werkand wound.
4. Of the sea, etc.: Agitated, tossing. poet.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, I. 6. The working sea I wil goe seeke in point of morning gray. Ibid., VII. 123. Much like the doth make ye colour haue.
1621. W. Mason, Ess., 23. The billowes of the working-sea that cannot rest.
1666. Dryden, Ann. Mirab., clxxi. On Biscay’s working-Bay. Ibid. (1676), Aurengz., IV. i. A working Sea, remaining from a Storm.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XII. 265. Oars they seize, Stretch to the stroke, and brush the working seas.
5. Of liquor: Fermenting.
1675. Evelyn, in J. Rose, Engl. Vineyard, 44. Some replenish their working Wines with Water only.
6. Of the features of the face: Moving involuntarily or convulsively, esp. as the result of emotion.
1753–4. Richardson, Grandison, II. xi. 75. That little witch, I have been watching her eyes, and every working muscle of her saucy face.
1838. Lytton, Alice, IX. iii. The smile vanished at once, as her eyes met his changed and working countenance.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xi. The working lip was loosened; and the tears came streaming forth. Ibid. (1865), Mut. Fr., IV. vii. ‘I heard of the outrage,’ said Bradley, trying to constrain his working mouth.
7. Of an organism, a piece of machinery, etc.: That performs its function (esp. in a specified manner); that ‘goes’ (as opposed to being stationary).
1608. Shaks., Per., V. i. 155. But are you flesh and bloud? Haue you a working pulse, and are no Fairie?
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Vaisseau qui se manie bien, a good working ship; a ship that is easily managed and steered.
1859. Newton’s Lond. Jrnl. Arts, 1 Feb., 115. Mr. J. A. Haswell exhibited a large working model of the new [railway-]switch.
1874. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 393. A continuous-working reverberatory furnace.
b. Naut. applied to certain sails.
1882. Standard, 11 Aug., 6/6. Lorna and Chittywee last, the latter with a large jackyardtopsail set, the others having working squareheaders.
1883. J. D. Jerrold Kelly, in Harper’s Mag., Aug., 450/2. A readiness at all times to meet any vicissitudes of wind and weather under racing or working rigs.
1898. Ansted, Dict. Sea Terms, Working foresail (in fore-and-aft rig), a foresail which runs on a horse. Working lug, the same as a standing lug; and it often has a boom.
8. a. Of a majority: Sufficient to secure the passing of measures.
1858. Penny Cycl., 2nd Suppl. 495/2. With the command of a working majority of about a hundred in the House of Commons, Sir Robert Peel entered on the greatest period of his political career.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxiv. (1861), V. 131. It was not impossible that the servants of the Crown might, by prudent management, succeed in obtaining a working majority.
b. Of a theory, etc.: That provides a basis upon which to work.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. xlv. V. 399. The confederacy would never have become a working reality.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., I. v. 112. If it be only a working hypothesis, to keep us, while confined in the human, from blindly and unconsciously dashing ourselves against the laws of the divine.
1875. Maine, Hist. Instit., xiii. 400. He wishes to alter … them according to a working rule gathered from his reflections.
1894. H. Drummond, Ascent of Man, 8. No one asks more of Evolution at present than permission to use it as a working theory.
1919. S. Huddleston, Peace-making at Paris, ii. 24. To make a temporary treaty which would give us a working relationship with Germany.
Hence Workingly adv., † effectively; industriously; Workingness, † effectiveness.
1611. Florio, Operosita, workingnesse or operation.
1642. J. Eaton, Honey-c. Free Justif., 269. Christ … in the residue of his whole life, afterwards fulfilled the whole Law, actually, workingly and perfectly.
1859. J. C. Atkinson, Walks & Talks (1892), 291. Such pretty birds hammering away so cheerfully and workingly.
