Word.ws English Dictionary

worked to rule

worked to rule is the simple past and past participle of work to rule.

Meaning of work to rule

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To work slowly by strictly following all work rules, usually in a work-to-rule job action, as part of unionized labor protest.

Questions about worked to rule

What is worked to rule the simple past and past participle of?
Worked to rule is the simple past and past participle of work to rule.

Words near worked to rule in the dictionary

  1. worked the oracle
  2. worked the refs
  3. worked the room
  4. worked the system
  5. worked through
  6. worked to rule
  7. worked together
  8. worked up
  9. worked wonders
  10. workedst
  11. worker

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worked to rule (page history and authors); work to rule (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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