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
At 64, he could outwork any reporter half his age.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2024
“At the time I was just trying to outwork everybody.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 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
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
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
As a candidate in Iowa, Mr. Trump was often conspicuously outworked by his competitors.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
“They kind of outrun us, outworked us, and that’s got to stop.”
From Washington Times ● Jan. 2, 2024
Griffith, the father of motion pictures, used to say there were only two people who outworked him — Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish.
From 100 New Yorkers of the 1970s by Millard, Max
"We are talking a lot about moving the ball, being aggressive, outworking teams. Our players buy into that."
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 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
She crisscrossed the district, outworking her opponent and reminding voters of her bipartisan record.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2022
"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
The outworking of the coup de main was a triumph for the old borderer's shrewd generalship.
From The Master of Appleby A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part with the Great Struggle in the Two Carolinas; but Chiefly with the Adventures Therein of Two Gentlemen Who Loved One and the Same Lady by Lynde, Francis
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 Putnam, Allen
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 Tuttle, Hudson
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 Putnam, Allen
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.
