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
Early in his political career, Newsom said, “I realized I’m just gonna outwork everybody.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
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
My father says, “Just do your best. Remember—it’s a long race and you can always outwork talent in the end.”
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
When the buzzer mercifully sounded, the box score made no bones about the fact the Trojans had been outworked and outclassed in almost every facet of the game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
“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
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
"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
“I think our coaching staff has done a good job with us. … I feel like we’re outcompeting teams, outworking them and finding ways to win hockey games. I think we’re all having a blast.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 25, 2022
The Hawks surged as they began outworking the Bulls under the basket.
From Fox News ● Mar. 4, 2022
This was hard on the rabbit; but it was no more than one tiny instance of the outworking of Nature's most inexorable law.
From Finn The Wolfhound by Robert Hugh Buxton
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
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
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.
