Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WORK, v.i. [pret. and pp. worked or wrought. Sax. weorcan, wircan, wyrcan; Goth. waurkyan; D. werken; G. wirken; Sw. virka, verka; Dan. virker; Gr. εργαζομαι.]

1. In a general sense, to move, or to move one way and the other; to perform; as in popular language it is said, a mill or machine works well.
2. To labor; to be occupied in performing manual labor, whether severe or moderate. One man works better than another; one man works hard; another works lazily.
3. To be in action or motion; as, the working of the heart. – Shak.
4. To act; to carry on operations. Our better part remains / To work in close design. – Milton.
5. To operate; to carry on business; to be customarily engaged or employed in. Some work in the mines, others in the loom, others at the anvil. They that work in fine flax. – Isa. xix.
6. To ferment; as, unfermented liquors work violently in hot weather.
7. To operate; to produce effects by action or influence. All things work together for good to them that love God. – Rom. viii. This so wrought upon the child, that afterward he desired to be taught. – Locke.
8. To obtain by diligence. [Little used.] – Shak.
9. To act or operate on the stomach and bowels; as a cathartic.
10. To labor; to strain; to move heavily; as, a ship works in a tempest.
11. To be tossed or agitated. Confus'd with working sands and rolling waves. – Addison.
12. To enter by working; as, to work into the earth. To work on, to act on; to influence. To work up, to make way. Body shall up to spirit work. – Milton. To work to windward, among seamen, to sail or ply against the wind; to beat. – Mar. Dict.