underwork
Americanverb (used with object)
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to do less work on than is necessary or required.
to underwork an idea.
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to employ inadequately.
He underworks his mind and overworks his feet.
verb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of underwork
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.
He can go to therapy to discuss why he makes the choices he does, but even if fear or insecurity leads him to overspend or underwork, he has to want to change.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 6, 2025
Mistakes, failures, successes, and an increasing degree of frustration over the overwork narratives we construct about academic lives, and the underwork narratives perceived by those outside of higher education.
From Scientific American • Jan. 9, 2013
The young wife McKay takes with him suffers from underwork, a cold heart and a galloping case of pre-feminism.
From Time Magazine Archive
But while Marx thus objects to piecework because it leads to overwork, he objects to it also because it leads to underwork.
From Contemporary Socialism by Rae, John
But Lablache, its owner, was never one to underwork his men.
From The Story of the Foss River Ranch A Tale of the Northwest by Cullum, Ridgwell
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.
