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overwork
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology 1
From Middle English overwerken, possibly from Old English oferwyrċan (“to overwork, overlay”), equivalent to over- + work. Cognate with Dutch overwerken (“to overwork”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ō'və-wûkʹ, IPA(key): /ˌəʊvəˈwɜːk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (General American, Canada) enPR: ō'vər-wûrkʹ, IPA(key): /ˌoʊvɚˈwɝk/
- Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k
Verb
overwork (third-person singular simple present overworks, present participle overworking, simple past and past participle overworked or (archaic) overwrought)
- (transitive) To make (someone or something) work too hard.
- to overwork a horse
- 1945 November snd December, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 329:
- For some years locomotives and coaches have been overworked and undermaintained to a degree without precedent in British railway history, and the leeway in maintenance now to be made up is very great.
- 2007 February 18, Jake Mooney, “A Case of the Shivers”, in The New York Times:
- The cracking sound, he explained, as far as I, a non-plumber, could understand, was the sound of the overworked, undermaintained and weirdly installed heating unit’s core rupturing and spilling water into the basement.
- 2019 August 10, Harmeet Kaur, “The most overworked cities in the US might surprise you”, in CNN:
- If you live in Washington D.C., Houston or Atlanta, it might be time to take a vacation.
Those three cities, followed by Seattle and Chicago, are the most overworked cities in the United States, according to a study released by the mobile technology company Kisi this past week.
- 2019 September 26, Sandee LaMotte, “Too much exercise could lead to bad decisions on what you eat and buy”, in CNN:
- It turns out that overworking your brain with either physical or mental exercise may lower your ability to delay self-gratification.
- 2021 January 13, Laura He and Nectar Gan, “Pinduoduo under fire as China turns on its tech titans”, in CNN:
- One of China’s most prominent e-commerce companies is facing intense public backlash over allegations that it overworks its employees.
- (intransitive) To work too hard.
- (transitive) To fill too full of work; to crowd with labour.
- 1874, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Aigalades:
- My days with toil are overwrought.
- (transitive) To decorate all over.
Translations
to work too hard
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Etymology 2
From Middle English overwerc, from Old English oferweorc, oferġeweorc (“an overwork, superstructure, tomb”), equivalent to over- + work.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ōʹvə-wûk', IPA(key): /ˈəʊvəˌwɜːk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (General American, Canada) enPR: ōʹvər-wûrk', IPA(key): /ˈoʊvɚˌwɝk/
Noun
overwork (uncountable)
- A superstructure.
- Excessive work.
- 1878, Phosphorus in functional disorders of the nervous system, induced by overwork and other influences incidental to modern life:
- Various disordered conditions consequent upon overwork, which are characteristic of modern civilisation.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Phantom Rickshaw”, in The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Tales, Allahabad: A.H. Wheeler and Co., page 8:
- He says that more men are killed by overwork than the importance of this world justifies. He maintains that overwork slew Pansay who died under his hands about three years ago.
- 1946 July and August, K. Westcott Jones, “Isle of Wight Central Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 244:
- […] it had obtained from its constituents rather antiquated and inefficient equipment, which scarcely stood up to overwork; […] .
- 1996, Wilkie Au, Urgings of the Heart: A Spirituality of Integration:
- When it comes to overwork, denial looms large.
- 2003, Ernie J Zelinski, Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked:
- The Japanese term for sudden death from overwork.
- 2018 November 4, Jake Kwon and Alexandra Field, “South Koreans are working themselves to death. Can they get their lives back?”, in CNN:
- In July, the government legislated to reduce the maximum working hours from a staggering 68 per week to 40, with 12 hours of paid overtime, in what President Moon Jae-in said would be an “important opportunity to move away from a society of overwork and move toward a society of spending time with families.”
Translations
excessive work
See also
Further reading
- “overwork”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “overwork”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
Anagrams
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