Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

11 VERB If a machine or piece of equipment works , it operates and performs a particular function. □ [V ] The pump doesn't work and we have no running water.

12 VERB If an idea, system, or way of doing something works , it is successful, effective, or satisfactory. □ [V ] 95 per cent of these diets do not work. □ [V adv] A methodical approach works best.

13 VERB If a drug or medicine works , it produces a particular physical effect. □ [V ] I wake at 6am as the sleeping pill doesn't work for more than nine hours. □ [V prep/adv] The drug works by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain.

14 VERB If something works in your favour, it helps you in some way. If something works to your disadvantage, it causes problems for you in some way. □ [V prep] One factor thought to have worked in his favour is his working class image.

15 VERB If something or someone works their magic or works their charms on a person, they have a powerful positive effect on them. □ [V n + on ] As Foreign Secretary, he had to work his charm on leaders from Stalin to Truman.

16 VERB If your mind or brain is working , you are thinking about something or trying to solve a problem. □ [V ] My mind was working frantically, running over the events of the evening.

17 VERB If you work on an assumption or idea, you act as if it were true or base other ideas on it, until you have more information. □ [V + on ] We are working on the assumption that it was a gas explosion.

18 VERB If you work a particular area or type of place, you travel around that area or work in those places as part of your job, for example trying to sell something there. □ [V n] Brand has been working the clubs and the pubs since 1986, developing her comedy act.

19 VERB If you work someone, you make them spend time and effort doing a particular activity or job. □ [V n adv/prep] They're working me too hard. I'm too old for this. [Also V n]

20 VERB If someone, often a politician or entertainer, works a crowd, they create a good relationship with the people in the crowd and get their support or interest. □ [V n] The Prime Minister has an ability to work a crowd–some might even suggest it is a kind of charm.

21 VERB When people work the land, they do all the tasks involved in growing crops. □ [V n] Farmers worked the fertile valleys.

22 VERB When a mine is worked , minerals such as coal or gold are removed from it. □ [be V -ed] The mines had first been worked in 1849, when gold was discovered in California.

23 VERB If you work a machine or piece of equipment, you use or control it. □ [V n] Many adults still depend on their children to work the computer.

24 VERB If something works into a particular state or condition, it gradually moves so that it is in that state or condition. □ [V adj] A screw had worked loose from my glasses.

25 VERB If you work a substance such as dough or clay, you keep pressing it to make it have a particular texture. □ [V n] Work the dough with the palm of your hand until it is very smooth.

26 VERB If you work a material such as metal, leather, or stone, you cut, sew, or shape it in order to make something or to create a design. □ [V n] …the machines needed to extract and work the raw stone.

27 VERB If you work a part of your body, or if it works , you move it. □ [V n] Each position will work the muscles in a different way. □ [V ] Her mouth was working in her sleep.

28 N‑COUNT [with sing or pl verb, usu n N , N n] A works is a place where something is manufactured or where an industrial process is carried out. Works is used to refer to one or to more than one of these places. □  The steel works could be seen for miles.