Employment. Labour, occupation, job.
A guide to work
• Labour, occupation, job.
• The place where one is employed.
• One's employer.
• A factory; a works.
• Effort. Effort expended on a particular task.
• Effort expended on a particular task.
• Sustained effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.
• Something on which effort is expended.
• Cosmetic surgery.
• Prison gang violence.
• A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move.
• A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process: applied productively.
• Product; the result of effort. The result of a particular manner of production.
• The result of a particular manner of production.
• Something produced using the specified material or tool.
• A literary, artistic, or intellectual production; a creative work.
• A fortification.
• The staging of events to appear as real.
• Ore before it is dressed.
• The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)
• The confident attitude of a drag queen.
(Verb) To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.
• Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business) .mw-parser-output .object-usage-tag{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output .deprecated{color:var(--wikt-palette-grey-lime-8,olivedrab)}[with in or at].
• Said of one's job title [with as].
• Said of a company or individual who employs [with for].
• General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients [with with].
• To be employed or operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.
• To be employed or operate in, through, or by means of.
• To be operative in a specified way. To behave in a certain way when handled
• To behave in a certain way when handled
• To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.
• To be appealing; to be approved of.
• To cause (someone) to feel (something); to do unto somebody (something, whether good or bad).
• To hurt; to ache.
• To pull off; to wear, perform, etc. successfully or to advantage.
• To perform with a confident attitude, particularly as a drag queen.
• To cause to operate, be productive, behave a certain way, or happen. To set into action.
• To set into action.
• To exhaust, by working.
• To shape, form, or improve a material.
• To provoke or excite; to influence.
• To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.
• To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.
• To force or compel to work.
• To influence.
• To use intensely and successfully.
• To continue laboriously. To move or progress slowly or with difficulty; to proceed with effort.
• To move or progress slowly or with difficulty; to proceed with effort.
• To move or progress slowly [with one's way].
• To cause to move slowly or with difficulty.
• To move in an agitated manner.
• To ferment (produce alcohol from sugars). To ferment. To cause to ferment.
• To ferment.
• To cause to ferment.
• To embroider with thread.
Why work is relevant in U.S. law
work appears in U.S. legal practice across multiple practice areas. Knowing what it means — and when it applies — can determine the outcome of motions, filings, and negotiations. For non-lawyers, the value of looking up a precise definition is that legal terms often carry meanings that differ from everyday usage; relying on the common meaning can lead to costly missteps.
When and how work applies
In practice, work is invoked when parties, judges, or attorneys need to identify the legal status of an issue, the rights of those involved, or the procedural step required next. The definition shown above is sourced from Wiktionary , which is widely cited in U.S. legal practice. Because U.S. law is jurisdictionally layered — federal, state, and sometimes local — the precise application of the term can vary by court, so check the controlling authority for your specific case.