Word.ws English Dictionary

work the room

work the room verb: to interact enthusiastically with the attendees at an event, by moving among them, greeting them, and engaging them in conversation.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, hostess, or guest) To interact enthusiastically with the attendees at an event, by moving among them, greeting them, and engaging them in conversation.
    • As a campaigning politician, he really knew how to shake hands, kiss babies, and work the room.
  2. (idiomatic) To interact with one's audience, taking cues from its reactions and adapting one's performance or words to elicit the audience's attention and enthusiasm.
    • In show business parlance, Miss Hudson knows how to "work the room." Her comic turns are as rooted in vaudeville as her high-style wit is straight out of the smart supper club circuit.1989 February 26, Alvin Klein, “Theatre: ‘Jerry's Girls,’ Revue, in East Windsor”, in New York Times, retrieved 03 Jul 2008

Synonyms of work the room

Forms of work the room

third-person singular presentworks the room
present participleworking the room
past participleworked the room
pastworked the room

Questions about work the room

What does work the room mean?
Work the room means to interact enthusiastically with the attendees at an event, by moving among them, greeting them, and engaging them in conversation.
What part of speech is work the room?
Work the room is a verb.
What is the past tense of work the room?
The past tense of work the room is worked the room.

Words near work the room in the dictionary

  1. work the hole
  2. work the hyphens
  3. work the line
  4. work the oracle
  5. work the refs
  6. work the room
  7. work the system
  8. work through
  9. work time
  10. work times
  11. work to rule

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: work the room (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: En-au-work the room.ogg.

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