Word.ws English Dictionary

worked one's way up

worked one's way up is the simple past and past participle of work one's way up.

Meaning of work one's way up

Noun

work one's way up (third-person singular simple present works one's way up, present participle working one's way up, simple past and past participle worked one's way up)

  1. to climb something effortfully
  2. to reach higher positions through effort after starting at lower levels or the very bottom
    • He worked his way up from janitor to regional manager.
    1. to climb the figurative corporate ladder
    2. to rise within a hierarchical order

Questions about worked one's way up

What is worked one's way up the simple past and past participle of?
Worked one's way up is the simple past and past participle of work one's way up.

Words near worked one's way up in the dictionary

  1. worked one's guts out
  2. worked one's magic
  3. worked one's passage
  4. worked one's tail off
  5. worked one's way
  6. worked one's way up
  7. worked oneself to the bone
  8. worked out
  9. worked over
  10. worked round
  11. worked someone's arse off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worked one's way up (page history and authors); work one's way up (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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