outwork

English

Etymology

out- +‎ work

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (verb): enPR: out-wûkʹ, IPA^(key): /aʊtˈwɔːk/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • (noun): enPR: outʹwûk, IPA^(key): /ˈaʊtwɔːk/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American)
  • (verb): enPR: out-wûrkʹ, IPA^(key): /aʊtˈwɔːɹk/
  • (noun): enPR: outʹwûrk, IPA^(key): /ˈaʊtwɔːɹk/

Verb

outwork (third-person singular simple present outworks, present participle outworking, simple past and past participle outworked)

1. (rare) To work out to a finish; to complete.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For now three dayes of men were full outwrought, / Since he this hardie enterprize began [...].

2. To work faster or harder than.
   • 2009, Bill Boggs, Got What It Takes?:

     And I am one of those people who is indefatigable, in the true sense that I beg someone to find someone who can outwork me.

Noun

outwork (countable and uncountable, plural outworks)

1. (architecture, countable) A minor, subsidiary fortification built beyond the main limits of fortification.
2. Agricultural work done outdoors in the fields.

Translations

a minor, subsidiary fortification built beyond the main limits of fortification

• Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܚܣܢܐ m

• Bulgarian: външно укрепление (vǎnšno ukreplenie)
• Czech: předhradí n
• German: Vorwerk (de) n
• Irish: urtheach m
• Latin: antemūrāle n
• Polish: przedmurze n, przymurek m

Anagrams

• work out, workout