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 people. I’m trying to outwork me.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 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
“He said, ‘Listen, Martin, no one’s going to outwork me, no one’s going to outwork this program,’” Jarmond said on the day of Foster’s introductory news conference.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2025
“At the time I was just trying to outwork everybody.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2024
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
Through the game’s first 15 minutes, the Trojans were outhustled and outworked on the glass as the Roadrunners drew fouls, forced turnovers and racked up seven early offensive rebounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
"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
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 Max Millard
“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
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
“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
In effect, the outworking of it meant a strictly defensive attitude in Africa, and in the north a naval siege of Germany.
From The Message by H. M. (Henry Matthew) Brock
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
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
