unwork

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English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

un- +‎ work

Verb[edit]

unwork (third-person singular simple present unworks, present participle unworking, simple past and past participle unworked or (archaic) unwrought)

  1. (transitive) To undo or destroy (work previously done).

Etymology 2[edit]

From un- +‎ work.

Noun[edit]

unwork (uncountable)

  1. The lack or absence of work; worklessness.
    • 1892, John Greenleaf Wittier, The Prose of John Greenleaf Wittier:
      That comfortable philosophy which modern transcendentalism has but dimly shadowed forth — that poetic agrarianism, which gives all to each and each to all— is the real life of this city of unwork.
    • 1963 Jan, Life:
      Collective bargaining has a crisis of "unwork" — that is, work which Justice Douglas once called "unwanted . . . totally useless." So much "unwork" clutters the table that collective bargaining is no longer able to do what it should: []