unwork
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English
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Verb
[edit]unwork (third-person singular simple present unworks, present participle unworking, simple past and past participle unworked or (archaic) unwrought)
- (transitive) To undo or destroy (work previously done).
Etymology 2
[edit]Noun
[edit]unwork (uncountable)
- The lack or absence of work; worklessness.
- 1892, John Greenleaf Wittier, The Prose of John Greenleaf Wittier:
- That comfortable philosophy which modern transcendentalism has but dimly shadowed forth — that poetic agrarianism, which gives all to each and each to all— is the real life of this city of unwork.
- 1963 Jan, Life:
- Collective bargaining has a crisis of "unwork" — that is, work which Justice Douglas once called "unwanted . . . totally useless." So much "unwork" clutters the table that collective bargaining is no longer able to do what it should: […]