work out

present singular third person works out · participle present working out · participle past worked out · past worked out

1. transitiveTo calculate.

   Can you work out 250 × 12 in your head for me?

   2 more examples

   Can you work out how to get to the university by car?

   You don't have to be Einstein to work out that this level of government subsidy is unsustainable.

   2022 January 12, Sir Michael Holden, “Reform of the workforce or death by a thousand cuts?”, in RAIL, number 948, page 22

2. transitiveTo make sense of.

   I can't work these instructions out.

   Synonyms: figure out, sort out

3. transitiveTo decide.

   I can't work out if I like him or not.

   Synonyms: determine, judge, choose up, decide, determine, resolve, find, judge

4. transitiveTo bring about or cause to happen by work or effort.

   Near-synonyms: hash out, hammer out

   2 more examples

   I think we can work out a compromise.

   "Ah! if man would but see that hope is from within and not from without - that he himself must work out his own salvation!"

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   Synonyms: hash out, hammer out

5. transitiveTo resolve; to find a solution for.

   Near-synonyms: straighten out, sort out

   2 more examples

   They managed to work out their differences.

   Trump hinted that Britain might be spared tariffs, saying: “I think that one can be worked out”.

   2025 February 3, Tom Phillips, Richard Partington, quoting Donald Trump, “Trump agrees to pause Mexico tariffs as shares tumble over trade war fears”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: puzzle out, reason out, think out, absolve, decipher, get to the bottom of, iron out, meliorate

6. transitiveTo develop or devise in detail; to elaborate.

   to work out a plan

   1 more example

   Near-synonyms: plan out, lay out

   Synonyms: plan out, lay out

7. transitiveTo smooth or perfect.

   Near-synonyms: iron out, smooth out

   1 more example

   This is a beta version; we're still working out the kinks.

   Synonyms: iron out, smooth out

8. intransitiveTo conclude with the correct solution.

   Near-synonym: add up

   1 more example

   These figures just don't work out.

   Synonyms: add up

9. intransitiveTo succeed; to result in a satisfactory situation.

   Near-synonym: pan out

   2 more examples

   Are you still seeing John? – No, it didn't work out.

   As everyone knows, almost all booked passenger and freight trains are diagrammed into rosters for engines and men, and in an operating Utopia everything would work out daily according to plan.

   1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 131

   Synonyms: pan out

10. intransitiveTo exercise, especially by lifting weights.

    Wow, you're looking good! Do you work out?

    2 more examples

    John won't be here for a while because he's working out.

    Alright, here we go! / Five, four, three, two, and one / Are you ready to work out?

    2018, “She Works Out Too Much”, in Little Dark Age, performed by MGMT

11. transitiveTo strengthen a part of one’s body by exercise.

    To work out your core

    1 more example

    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. USintransitiveTo 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

    1 more example

    […] 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. intransitivetransitiveUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see work, out.

    He works out of a small office shared with three others.

    1 more example

    Using some tweezers, he worked the bee sting out of his hand.

14. businessTo remove all the mineral that can be profitably exploited.

    A worked-out chalk pit or quarry

    1 more example

    The gravel pit had been worked out.