wrought
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
wrought
adj 1: shaped to fit by or as if by altering the contours of a
pliable mass (as by work or effort); "a shaped handgrip";
"the molded steel plates"; "the wrought silver bracelet"
[syn: {shaped}, {molded}, {wrought}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Work \Work\ (w[^u]rk), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Worked} (w[^u]rkt),
or {Wrought} (r[add]t); p. pr. & vb. n. {Working}.] [AS.
wyrcean (imp. worthe, wrohte, p. p. geworht, gewroht); akin
to OFries. werka, wirka, OS. wirkian, D. werken, G. wirken,
Icel. verka, yrkja, orka, Goth. wa['u]rkjan. [root]145. See
{Work}, n.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To exert one's self for a purpose; to put forth effort for
the attainment of an object; to labor; to be engaged in
the performance of a task, a duty, or the like.
[1913 Webster]
O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
To match thy goodness? --Shak.
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Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw
be given you. --Ex. v. 18.
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Whether we work or play, or sleep or wake,
Our life doth pass. --Sir J.
Davies.
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2. Hence, in a general sense, to operate; to act; to perform;
as, a machine works well.
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We bend to that the working of the heart. --Shak.
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3. Hence, figuratively, to be effective; to have effect or
influence; to conduce.
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We know that all things work together for good to
them that love God. --Rom. viii.
28.
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This so wrought upon the child, that afterwards he
desired to be taught. --Locke.
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She marveled how she could ever have been wrought
upon to marry him. --Hawthorne.
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4. To carry on business; to be engaged or employed
customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor;
to toil.
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They that work in fine flax . . . shall be
confounded. --Isa. xix. 9.
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5. To be in a state of severe exertion, or as if in such a
state; to be tossed or agitated; to move heavily; to
strain; to labor; as, a ship works in a heavy sea.
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Confused with working sands and rolling waves.
--Addison.
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6. To make one's way slowly and with difficulty; to move or
penetrate laboriously; to proceed with effort; -- with a
following preposition, as down, out, into, up, through,
and the like; as, scheme works out by degrees; to work
into the earth.
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Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
Proportioned to each kind. --Milton.
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7. To ferment, as a liquid.
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The working of beer when the barm is put in.
--Bacon.
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8. To act or operate on the stomach and bowels, as a
cathartic.
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Purges . . . work best, that is, cause the blood so
to do, . . . in warm weather or in a warm room.
--Grew.
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{To work at}, to be engaged in or upon; to be employed in.
{To work to windward} (Naut.), to sail or ply against the
wind; to tack to windward. --Mar. Dict.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Wrought \Wrought\,
imp. & p. p. of {Work}; as, What hath God wrought?.
[1913 Webster]
Note: In 1837, Samuel F. B. Morse, an American artist,
devised a working electric telegraph, based on a rough
knowledge of electrical circuits, electromagnetic
induction coils, and a scheme to encode alphabetic
letters. He and his collaborators and backers
campaigned for years before persuading the federal
government to fund a demonstration. Finally, on May 24,
1844, they sent the first official long-distance
telegraphic message in Morse code, "What hath God
wrought," through a copper wire strung between
Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. The phrase
was taken from the Bible, Numbers 23:23. It had been
suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the young
daughter of a friend. --Library of Congress, American
Memories series
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may24.html).
[PJC]
Alas that I was wrought [created]! --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The word wrought is sometimes assumed to be the past
tense of wreak, as the phrases
{wreak havoc} and
{wrought havoc} are both commonly used. In fact,
{wrought havoc} is not as common as
{wreaked havoc}. Whether wrought is considered as the past
tense of wreak or of work,
{wrought havoc} has essentially the same meaning, encouraging
the confusion. Etymologically, however, wrought is only
the past tense of work.
[PJC]
Wrought and wreaked havoc
Recently, we mentioned that something had wreaked
havoc with our PC. We were fairly quickly corrected
by someone who said, "Shouldn't that be wrought
havoc?" The answer is no, because either wreaked or
wrought is fine here. A misconception often arises
because wrought is wrongly assumed to be the past
participle of wreak. In fact wrought is the past
participle of an early version of the word work!
Wreak comes from Old English wrecan "drive out,
punish, avenge", which derives ultimately from the
Indo-European root *wreg- "push, shove, drive, track
down". Latin urgere "to urge" comes from the same
source, giving English urge. Interestingly, wreak is
also related to wrack and wreck. The phrase wreak
havoc was first used by Agatha Christie in 1923.
Wrought, on the other hand, arose in the 13th
century as the past participle of wirchen, Old
English for "work". In the 15th century worked came
into use as the past participle of work, but wrought
survived in such phrases as finely-wrought,
hand-wrought, and, of course, wrought havoc . . . .
Havoc, by the way, comes from Anglo-French havok,
which derived from the phrase crier havot "to cry
havoc". This meant "to give the army the order to
begin seizing spoil, or to pillage". It is thought
that this exclamation was Germanic in origin, but
that's all that anyone will say about it! The
destruction associated with pillaging came to be
applied metaphorically to havoc, giving the word its
current meaning.
--The
Institute for
Etymological
Research and
Education
(http://www.takeourword.com/Issue048.html)
[PJC]
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