wark
/wɔːk/US/wɔɹk/
wark noun: pain; ache.
Noun (1)
wark (plural warks)
Verb
wark (third-person singular simple present warks, present participle warking, simple past and past participle warked)
Noun (2)
wark (plural warks)
- Work.
- That September (1582) in time of vacance, my uncle Mr. Andrew, Mr. Thomas Buchanan and I, hearing that Mr. George Buchanan was weak, and his history under the press, passed over to Edinburgh anes errand to visite him, and to see the wark.1819, Malcolm Laing, The History of Scotland, page 141
- We'dn done a pratty day or two's wark afore t' sodgers geet at us.1860, Sir James Phillips Kay- huttleworth, Scarsdale; or, Life on the Lancashire and Yorkshire border, page 85
- A building.
- 'Yet this imposition,' says Nicoll, 'seemed not to thrive; for at the same instant God frae the heavens declared his anger by sending thunder, and unheard tempests, and storms, and inundations of water, whilk destroyed their common mills, dams, and warks, to the town's great charges and expenses.'...1858, Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, page 253
- They speak in high terms of "his extraordiner panes and grait cair he had in that Wark, baith by his advyce, and in the building of the same.1859, William Steven, Frederick William Bedford, History of George Heriot's hospital, page 54
Proper noun capitalized: Wark
Wark
- A surname.
- A village and civil parish in mid Northumberland, England, otherwise known as Wark on Tyne (OS grid ref NY8677).
- A small village in Carham parish, north Northumberland, otherwise known as Wark on Tweed (OS grid ref NT8238).
Examples of wark in a sentence
- “Mair wark," replied Tibbie, looking round on her well-kept pans and candlesticks.1864, Eliza Tabor, St. Olave's: A Novel, page 18:
- The awsome flames had dune their wark, Nae form was left to see, Nought but a grim and blackened stake, A ghastly vacancy.1868, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Once a Week, page 317:
- And because the said Thomas Fallisdaill and John Semple ar alreddy enterit to the said wark, [ and ] coft materiallis as thai declairit, and ressauit ane pairt of the said taxatioun;1870, Sir James David Marwick, Records of the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland, page 265:
Synonyms of wark
Forms of wark
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | warks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | warks |
| present participle | warking |
| past participle | warked |
| past | warked |
Origin of wark
From Middle English werk, warch, from Old English wærc, wræc (“pain, suffering, anguish”), from Proto-Germanic *warkiz (“pain”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to make, work, act”). Cognate with Swedish värk (“ache, pain”), Icelandic verkur (“pain”). Related to work.
From Middle English werken, warchen, from Old English wærcan (“to be in pain”). Cognate with Swedish värka (“to ache, pain”), Icelandic verkja (“to pain”). See above.
See work.
Words formed from wark
Words that rhyme with wark
Questions about wark
- What does wark mean?
- Wark means pain; ache.
- How do you use wark in a sentence?
- “Mair wark," replied Tibbie, looking round on her well-kept pans and candlesticks.
- What part of speech is wark?
- Wark can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wark?
- Wark is pronounced /wɔːk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of wark?
- The plural of wark is warks.
Words near wark in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wark (page history and authors); Wark (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-wark.wav.
Cite this entry: “wark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.