outwork

English

Etymology

From 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)

2. (transitive) To work more, faster, or harder than (someone else).

   Hypernym: outdo

   A few may be able to outsmart him, but no one can outwork him.

   • 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.

3. (rare, obsolete) 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 [...].

Noun

outwork (countable and uncountable, plural outworks)

2. (architecture, countable) A minor, subsidiary fortification built beyond the main limits of fortification.

   Coordinate term: fieldwork

   Beyond the castle, scattered outworks offered some protection for the farther-flung peasants.

4. Agricultural work done outdoors in the fields.

   Synonym: fieldwork

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