working

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɜːkɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɝkɪŋ/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kɪŋ
• Hyphenation: work‧ing

From Middle English werking, werkynge, warkynge, worchinge, from Old English wyrċing (“working”), verbal noun of wyrċan (“to work”), equivalent to work +‎ -ing. Cognate with Scots wirking, warking, Dutch werking, German Wirkung.

working (countable and uncountable, plural workings)

1. (usually in the plural) Operation; action.
2. Method of operation.
3. (arithmetic) The incidental or subsidiary calculations performed in solving an overall problem.

   Be sure to check your working.

4. Fermentation.
5. (of bodies of water) Becoming full of a vegetable substance.
6. A place where work is carried on.

   the abandoned mine workings

7. (countable) A train movement.
   • 1960 December, Cecil J. Allen, “Operating a mountain main line: the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 743:

     From time to time the coaches of the Lötschberg Railway itself, which in comfort and décor can rank with the finest in Europe today, travel far from the frontiers of Switzerland on through workings such as these.

From Middle English workyng, wirkynge, worchinge, werchinge, workinde, wirkand, worchende, wurchende, from Old English wyrċende, from Proto-Germanic *wurkijandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną (“to work”), equivalent to work +‎ -ing. Compare Scots wirkand, werkand, warkand (“working”), Dutch werkend (“working, acting”), German wirkend (“acting, working”).

working

1. present participle and gerund of work

   Leave him alone; he’s working.

working (not comparable)

1. That is or are functioning.

   a working ventilator

2. That suffices but requires additional work; provisional.

   a working copy of the script

   a working title

3. In paid employment.

   working mothers

4. Of or relating to employment.

   the working week

5. Enough to allow one to use something.

   a working knowledge of computers

6. Used in real life; practical.

   The working minimum focus distance is the distance from the closest focusable subject to the lens.

7. (obsolete) Efficacious.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

     You ſee my Lord, what woorking woordes hee hath.
     But when you ſee his actions ſtop ^{[sic – meaning top]} his ſpeech,
     Your ſpeech will ſtay, or ſo extol his worth,
     As I ſhalbe commended and excuſde
     For turning my poore charge to his direction.

• (functioning):: functioning; up (mainly used of computers):
• (that suffices but requires further work):: draft, provisional, temporary
• (in paid employment):: employed, in employment
• (of or relating to employment):: work
• (enough to allow one to use something):: basic

• (antonym(s) of “functioning”):: broken, broken-down, down (antonym(s) of “mainly used of computers”):

• known-working

• work

• “working”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “working”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.