English

Verb

work out ‎(third-person singular simple present works out, present participle working out, simple past and past participle worked out)

1. (transitive, with object after out) To calculate.

   Can you work out 250 × 12 in your head for me?

   Can you work out how to get to the university by car?

2. (transitive) To make sense of.

   I can't work these instructions out.

3. (transitive) To smooth.

   This is a beta version; we're still working out the kinks.

4. (intransitive) To conclude with the correct solution.

   These figures just don't work out.

5. (intransitive) To succeed.

   Are you still seeing John? - No, it didn't work out.

6. (intransitive) To habitually exercise rigorously, especially by lifting weights, in order to increase strength or muscle mass or maintain fitness.

   Wow, you're looking good! Do you work out?

7. (transitive, intransitive) Used other than as an idiom: see work,‎ out.

   Using some tweezers, he worked the bee sting out of his hand.

   He works out of a small office shared with three others.

Quotations

• 1971, Carol King, “So Far Away”, Tapestry, Ode Records

  If I could only work this life out my way / I’d rather spend it bein' close to you.

• 2009, Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, Penguin Books, p.41:

  "I have some questions I need to work out. Big questions."

Synonyms

• train

Related terms

• workout

Translations

See also

• exercise

Anagrams

• outwork