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 64, he could outwork any reporter half his age.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2024
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
"I felt our fitness as well in the second half, we outworked the defence and that created chances for us."
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2024
“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
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
So, on a Tuesday night when the increasingly undermanned St. Louis Blues actually showed up for work, the Kraken secured a badly needed victory, 5-3, by outworking them at key moments.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2023
She crisscrossed the district, outworking her opponent and reminding voters of her bipartisan record.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2022
He said that was the secret to Mr. Seper’s success: “It’s not smoke and mirrors and tricks, it’s outworking other people.”
From Washington Times ● Oct. 25, 2022
I outlined an ambition, but its outworking was a problem.
From My Lady of the Chimney Corner by Irvine, Alexander
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
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
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
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.
