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
We spoke after the first season of “Mo” came out and you talked about how as an immigrant, your mentality is you have to outwork everybody.
From Salon ● Feb. 11, 2025
“At the time I was just trying to outwork everybody.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2024
“They may be taller, but nobody is going to outwork us,” Erami said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2023
If its attorneys do not outsmart you, they will outwork you, and if they can’t outwork you, they’ll win through sheer intimidation.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
“I vowed that day I would never be outworked again,” Zaslav said during a 2023 commencement address to Boston University graduates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 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
As a candidate in Iowa, Mr. Trump was often conspicuously outworked by his competitors.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
To the last, looking as if he was bowed down to the point of exhaustion by his labours, he outworked all his subordinates.
From The Mirrors of Downing Street Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster by Begbie, Harold
"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
“A lot of guys’ niches is shooting the ball, working hard, outworking guys.
From Seattle Times ● May 15, 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
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 Westbrook, Richard B.
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
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
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.
