work at

Related to work at: Work at home

work at (something or some place)

1. To be persistent or diligent in one's effort or task. Often phrased as "work away at." I've been working away at my manuscript for the last month. You're not going to become some great artist overnight—you have to keep working at it! He's still working at getting the lawnmower up and running again.
2. To work at a particular location or company. You've been working at the computer for nearly six hours straight—go take a little break. I worked at Stem Corp. for a few years before getting a job with Flem Corp.
See also: work
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

work at something

 
1. . to work in a particular trade or craft. He works at carpentry when he has the time. Julie works at editing for a living.
2. . to work on a specific task, machine, device, etc. She was working at repairing the cabinet when I came home. Todd is working at his computer.
See also: work
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

work at

v.
1. To exert force on something repeatedly or continuously: The plumber worked at the clog with a plunger.
2. To direct persistent or diligent effort toward something: You must keep working at your piano exercises if you want to improve.
3. To do work in some particular place: I'm working at home today. I'm working at my desk.
4. To hold a job at some place: I used to work at the hospital before I got a job at the bank.
See also: work
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • are we away
  • Are we away?
  • come away with
  • come away with (one)
  • away
  • draw away
  • do away with
  • do away with (someone, something, or oneself)
  • draw away from (someone or something)
  • dwindle away
References in periodicals archive
And unions have actively battled work at home in the courts, fearing that workers earning sub-union wages in the comfort of their homes will undercut dues-paying laborers.
Indeed, a final way that employees can exercise choice over their hours of employment is to work at more than one job.
1970-89(1) the female multiple-job holders work at more than one part-time job; they work, on average, nearly fifty hours per week.
His wife Susan also does communication work and has a studio at the house, but does most of her work at clients' offices.
If you say Jim's work at the time came out of billboard painting, then you could say mine came out of house painting.
This is especially so in a work setting; often the consumer was the first one with a psychiatric disability to work at a particular location, and is well aware of what it is like to be new on the job and coping with stress and stigma.
MIKE KELLEY, an artist based in Los Angeles, has exhibited his work at venues around the world.
The company's vice president in charge of manufacturing asks the quality control specialist to work at the Tucson plant until the quality control problems can be corrected.
Lastly, blurred and/or double vision may impact the individual's ability to work at occupations which require visual acuity.
Contractors engage to do certain kinds of work at a given price, and they employ whom they please.
Most striking in this worker's testimony is the recognition of some socially-recognized age level (here unspecified) at which boys would earn their keep, that as family breadwinner he chose to purchase his sons' idleness, and that he held a notion of the worth of his sons' labor which caused him to spare them and himself the quiet humiliation of sending them out to work at any price.
A stepson had gone to work at the age of 14, but Mrs.
An investigation into the welfare board's action revealed that the department had "made an organized effort to force single girls who are on relief to accept jobs as domestics in homes at starvation wages." The opposition charged the state with forcing women to accept work at sub-standard rates.(25) In Virginia, Washington, D.C., South Dakota and New Jersey, local relief agencies closed welfare cases when local agricultural employment or domestic service was available.
However, these oral histories do tend to emphasize smaller family farms more than larger commercial farms, family farms that were able to persist through the 1970s when the interviews were conducted, and those farm people who discussed women's work at length, thus apparently perceiving it as crucial to the farm enterprise.(6) The oral histories present an excellent counterbalance to studies done by agricultural agencies which tend to over-represent larger, more commercial farms and farm families that perceived women's labor as separate from the farm operation, as these agencies prescribed.
As Emma's husband Walter quickly pointed out, "There was more women's work at that time.