[f. WORKMAN + -SHIP.]
† 1. The performance or execution of work or a work; work, labor: in early use often, the labor or amount of labor performed on a particular task or piece of work. Obs.
c. 1375. Cursor M., 1684 (Fairf.). Loke þi werk-monshepe be sleyghe.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 288. Þanne shal borel clerkes … drede to wratthe ȝow … ȝowre werkemanship to lette.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 127. With gret sleihte Of werkmanschipe it was begrave.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 6132. Nature … Passeth soothly werke-man-shepe.
1467–8. Rolls Parlt., V. 620/1. Tooversee the werkmanship of theseid Craftymen.
1503. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., II. 206. For making and werkmanship and inlayk of the samyn xx li.
1552. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 124. The charges of garniture & workemanshipp with stuf & other prouisions bought & made of new this year.
1581. Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., I. (1586), 9 b. The knowledge of … handycrafts, of workmanships.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. XCIV. ii. Sight shall he want, From whose first workmanshipp the eye did grow?
1612. Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees), 163. Paid for mendinge the bell ropes with leather and workmanshipp, x d.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 150. A table … the Jewels wherof they valued at fiftie thousand Crownes, and the workmanship at twelve thousand Crownes.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 297. In case they would be at the charge of bringing stone, he would find Workmanship, and build them a Tower.
1751. Labelye, Westm. Bridge, 78. All Workmanship to be performed at a fixed Price.
1793. J. Lodge, Topogr. Hist. Heref., 54. Second year’s rent and workmanship 2 3 0.
1818. Min. Evid. Committee Ribbon Weavers, 195. An instance … where a master took a man up to a magistrate for spoiling the work, and the man paid every penny of the workmanship of it.
† 2. Action, agency, operation. Obs.
1534. More, Treat. Passion, Wks. 1343/2. By the woorkemanshippe of his heauenly mercy.
1545. Bale, Myst. Iniq., 20 b. Eyther had prestes wynes of their owne in those dayes, or els there was some other good workemanshyp a brode. Ibid. (1546), Engl. Votaries, I. 4 b. The deceytfull workemanshyp of the instrumentes of Sathan.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., I. V. 19. Before his audacious workmanship the Churches were rul’d in common by the Presbyters.
† b. Creation, making, manufacture, production.
1578. Timme, Calvin on Gen., 49. After that the workmanshippe of the World was fully perfected.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 70. That it might haue 3. hot moneths togither to work it to his ful perfection…. I haue thought good … to set downe mine own fansie, for the easier stirring vppe of this Malmesey to his workmanship.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, 259. ’Tis a great Mystery … how Tubal-Cain … could ever have taught the Workmanship and Use of them.
† c. Make, fashion. Obs. rare.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, V. 80 b. As he varied from the workemanshyp of other bodyes, so had he one passage also of choler that visited the ventricle.
3. That which is wrought or made by a workman or craftsman; (a person’s) work. Also transf. something produced: arch. exc. as in piece of workmanship, which may properly belong to 1.
1523. Act 13 & 14. Hen. VIII., c. 2. A proper marke … by the which their wares, vessels, and workmanshippes … may be knowen.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Esdras viii. 7. We all are one workmanshipe of thy handes.
1549. Compl. Scot., vii. 69. The pleisand verkmenschips that vas in the middis of hyr mantil.
1551. T. Wilson, Logic, L ij b. The daie … whiche is the effecte, or woorkemanship of the Sunne.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., a ij. Formally, Number, is the Vnion, and Vnitie of Vnits. Which ynyting and knitting, is the workemanship of our minde.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., I. 18. To worship … the workemanship of mens hands.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 183. It was the onely quarrell he pickt with his workmanship, that man was alone.
1710. Prior, Examiner, No. 6, ¶ 2. A curious Piece of poetical Workmanship.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 102. Human nature, considered as the divine workmanship.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., VII. § 12. Inconsistent ideas which are often the workmanship of their own brains.
1751. Affect. Narr. Wager, 28. A little Hut,… the Workmanship, I guess, of some Indian.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat., xi. III. 266. This ball is the workmanship of the ants.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, i. 63. A new piece of gold or silver … with noble workmanship, on it.
1859. Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, xiv. There’s no denying she’s a rare bit o’ workmanship.
1892. Westcott, Gospel of Life, 200. As the world was His workmanship; so man was made in His image.
4. Skill or cunning as a workman; craftsmanship as exhibited in a piece of work.
1529. Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871), 6. Of gud and sufficient stuff … and sufficient werkmanschip.
1541. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 C iv. For to cut is a redy and easy thynge, but for to heale by medycamentes is a greater thynge and that requyreth workemanshyp.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 68. The inhabitants … doe excell in curious woorkmanshippe and mechanicall inventions.
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., I. i. 17. Idiots admire in things the Beauty of their Materials, but Artists that of the Workmanship.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., iv. 66. It is counted a piece of good workmanship in a Joyner, to have the craft of bearing his hand so curiously even.
1838. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), III. vi. 93. Some rings of negro workmanship.
1889. R. Buchanan, in Contemp. Rev., Dec., 911. It is subject, in short, that makes plays enduring, plus of course the requisite dramatic workmanship.
1909. Mem. W. E. H. Lecky, 48. There is a passage in the ‘Religious Tendencies’ which shows that from early times he had a high ideal of literary workmanship.
