noun
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(often plural) defences which lie outside main defensive works
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work performed away from the factory, office, etc, by which it has been commissioned
verb
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to work better, harder, etc, than
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to work out to completion
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of outwork
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“I’m trying to outwork the contract,” Snoop said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
“She runs harder and runs faster than her opponents. Nobody’s going to outwork her.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2024
I understood where my talents were, and I knew I was going to have to outwork people, I knew I was going to have to outsmart.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2023
Light on her feet, Scotney continued to outwork her opponent.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2023
But his eyes always seem hopeful when he says that I can outwork talent over the long haul, and so for him—and for me too—I try my best to do just that.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
One reason for his primary win is that he simply outworked Stevens, visiting over 110 cities, according to his campaign, holding over 500 public events and, in the process, building a genuine movement.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
Through the game’s first 15 minutes, the Trojans were outhustled and outworked on the glass as the Roadrunners drew fouls, forced turnovers and racked up seven early offensive rebounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
The crowd attempted to rouse McCann with a succession of "Molly" chants, but it was in vain as the Brazilian outworked her on the floor before securing a rear naked choke.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2025
“We just got outworked tonight,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2024
It is said that if he disliked a fellow pressman and wished to be rid of him, he merely put forth his immense strength and outworked him.
From Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made by James Dabney McCabe
Catterall, 31, was at times outworking and outmanoeuvring his 33-year-old opponent, landing smart counter punches, but Barboza ended the rounds strongly, with crisp and well-timed power shots.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2025
“Winning an Iowa caucus requires a strong combination of outworking and out-organizing the competition and that’s been the Ron DeSantis model.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 30, 2023
Dunford, asked about the barriers that Gen. Stewart faced, said that his friend and colleague “knew it might be harder for him than others,” and believed that he could overcome obstacles by outworking others.
From Washington Post ● May 1, 2023
"We’ve got to bear down on our clears, on our entries, and back to outworking PPs that are out there."
From Fox News ● Mar. 30, 2022
On the other hand, God may originally have implanted the germs of a common religious thought in the mind of man, and then have adapted his successive revelations to the outworking of those germs.
From The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets by Richard B. Westbrook
But man feels the aspirations for a superior life, a soaring out of and above the physical senses; he feels the promptings of duty, of right, of justice and truth, outwrought from his innermost being.
From Studies in the Out-Lying Fields of Psychic Science by Hudson Tuttle
Great changes and advances of either a material, mental, political, social, or spiritual world are, like births, generally outwrought through anguish and sufferings.
From Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism by Allen Putnam
Our position, fortified by the facts and reasonings in the preceding pages, is, that spirits—departed human beings—generated and outwrought Salem witchcraft.
From Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism by Allen Putnam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
