"work over" meaning in English

See work over in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-work over.ogg Forms: works over [present, singular, third-person], working over [participle, present], worked over [participle, past], worked over [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} work over (third-person singular simple present works over, present participle working over, simple past and past participle worked over)
  1. (transitive) To improve a prototype, or first draft. Tags: transitive Synonyms (improve): polish, rework
    Sense id: en-work_over-en-verb-FGDfMaBg Disambiguation of 'improve': 92 5 3
  2. (transitive, slang) To physically attack in order to cause injury. Tags: slang, transitive Synonyms (physically attack): beat up
    Sense id: en-work_over-en-verb-99wZYDz6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "over", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 22 50 28 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "over": 14 67 20 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 23 52 25 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 11 75 14 Disambiguation of 'physically attack': 1 99 0
  3. (transitive, slang) To subject (a person) to a severe scolding, interrogation, beating, etc. Tags: slang, transitive
    Sense id: en-work_over-en-verb-xYPdCBQa

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "works over",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "working over",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked over",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked over",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "work over (third-person singular simple present works over, present participle working over, simple past and past participle worked over)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The estimated figures are not bad, but somebody will have to work them over.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To improve a prototype, or first draft."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_over-en-verb-FGDfMaBg",
      "links": [
        [
          "improve",
          "improve"
        ],
        [
          "prototype",
          "prototype"
        ],
        [
          "draft",
          "draft"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To improve a prototype, or first draft."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "92 5 3",
          "sense": "improve",
          "word": "polish"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "92 5 3",
          "sense": "improve",
          "word": "rework"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "22 50 28",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 67 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"over\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "23 52 25",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "11 75 14",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He'll talk, once we work him over.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To physically attack in order to cause injury."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_over-en-verb-99wZYDz6",
      "links": [
        [
          "attack",
          "attack"
        ],
        [
          "injury",
          "injury"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, slang) To physically attack in order to cause injury."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "1 99 0",
          "sense": "physically attack",
          "word": "beat up"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, David Rogers, The Printer's Devil, page 175:",
          "text": "The desk sergeant worked him over pretty good and finally turned him over to the detective squad.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To subject (a person) to a severe scolding, interrogation, beating, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_over-en-verb-xYPdCBQa",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, slang) To subject (a person) to a severe scolding, interrogation, beating, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-work over.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ca/En-au-work_over.ogg/En-au-work_over.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/En-au-work_over.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "work over"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"over\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "works over",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "working over",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked over",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked over",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "work over (third-person singular simple present works over, present participle working over, simple past and past participle worked over)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The estimated figures are not bad, but somebody will have to work them over.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To improve a prototype, or first draft."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "improve",
          "improve"
        ],
        [
          "prototype",
          "prototype"
        ],
        [
          "draft",
          "draft"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To improve a prototype, or first draft."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He'll talk, once we work him over.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To physically attack in order to cause injury."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "attack",
          "attack"
        ],
        [
          "injury",
          "injury"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, slang) To physically attack in order to cause injury."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, David Rogers, The Printer's Devil, page 175:",
          "text": "The desk sergeant worked him over pretty good and finally turned him over to the detective squad.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To subject (a person) to a severe scolding, interrogation, beating, etc."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, slang) To subject (a person) to a severe scolding, interrogation, beating, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-work over.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ca/En-au-work_over.ogg/En-au-work_over.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/En-au-work_over.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "improve",
      "word": "polish"
    },
    {
      "sense": "improve",
      "word": "rework"
    },
    {
      "sense": "physically attack",
      "word": "beat up"
    }
  ],
  "word": "work over"
}

Download raw JSONL data for work over meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.