work out

Verb

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

1. (transitive) 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.

   Synonyms:

   figure out, sort out

3. (transitive) To decide.
   • I can't work out if I like him or not.

   Synonyms:

   determine, judge, choose up, decide, resolve, find, posken, make a decision, make up one's mind, take a decision

4. (transitive) To bring about or cause to happen by work or effort.
   • Near-synonyms: hash out, hammer out
   • I think we can work out a compromise.

   Synonyms:

   hash out, hammer out

5. (transitive) To resolve; to find a solution for.
   • Near-synonyms: straighten out, sort out
   • They managed to work out their differences.

   Synonyms:

   puzzle out, reason out, think out, absolve, decipher, get to the bottom of, iron out, meliorate, ravel, resolve

6. (transitive) To develop or devise in detail; to elaborate.
   • Near-synonyms: plan out, lay out
   • to work out a plan

   Synonyms:

   plan out, lay out

7. (transitive) To smooth or perfect.
   • Near-synonyms: iron out, smooth out
   • This is a beta version; we're still working out the kinks.

   Synonyms:

   iron out, smooth out

8. (intransitive) To conclude with the correct solution.
   • Near-synonym: add up
   • These figures just don't work out.

   Synonyms:

   add up

9. (intransitive) To succeed; to result in a satisfactory situation.
   • Near-synonym: pan out
   • Are you still seeing John? – No, it didn't work out.

   Synonyms:

   pan out

10. (intransitive) To exercise, especially by lifting weights.
    • John won't be here for a while because he's working out.
    • Wow, you're looking good! Do you work out?
11. (transitive) To strengthen a part of one’s body by exercise.
    • To work out your core
    • Hot, worked-out body and a creative mind possessed by this hunky, handsome, married guy.1990 December 9, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 12
12. (US, intransitive) To earn a wage working away from one's farm.
    • The two Russians made good farmhands, and in summer they worked out together.1918, Willa Cather, chapter 5, in My Ántonia, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 38
    • […] with them good wages, maybe a fella can get hisself a little piece a land an’ work out for extra cash.1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 13, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1958, page 201
13. (intransitive, transitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: 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.
14. To remove all the mineral that can be profitably exploited.
    • The gravel pit had been worked out.
    • A worked-out chalk pit or quarry