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:
“She may be being outspent — Democrats are being outspent in most places, and Black women are always outspent. What she has said is people can’t outwork her.”
From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2026
Unable to outrun or outthrow other players, Tom Brady had to outwork and outsmart them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
“It felt so fulfilling to wake up and think, ‘I’m going to outwork everybody around me and be more creative than them.’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
I think he will outwork Eubank and might stop him, but I am edging towards a Benn victory on points in an absolute thriller.
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025
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
Some trained engineers looked down on him, but "he really outworked everybody," Diamos says.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
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
USC was still outworked on the glass, where it has struggled all season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024
“We just got outworked tonight,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 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 Harold Begbie
“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
The Burton-upon-Trent fighter began well, doubling up on his jabs and outworking Wach in the opening rounds.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2023
She crisscrossed the district, outworking her opponent and reminding voters of her bipartisan record.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2022
The Hawks then found their long-distance shot and began outworking the Bulls under the basket.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2022
Woman herself, all that she is, all that she has ever been, all that she may be, is but the outworking of this inner spiritual urge.
From Woman and the New Race by Margaret Sanger
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
