working

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Performing work: a working committee.
2. adj. Operating or functioning as required: a working flashlight.
3. adj. Having a paying job; employed: working mothers.
4. adj. Spent at work: a working life of 40 years.
5. adj. Taken while continuing to work: a working vacation.
6. adj. Sufficient to allow action: a working majority.
7. adj. Adequate for practical use: a working knowledge of Spanish.
8. adj. Serving as a basis or guide for further work: a working hypothesis.
9. n. The manner in which something operates or functions. Often used in the plural: the workings of the mind.
10. n. The parts of a mine or quarry that have been or are being excavated. Often used in the plural.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In forestry, the harvesting of the final yield under a working plan. Working is annual when cuttings are made each year; periodic when they are made after uniform periods of two or more years; and intermittent when they are made at irregular intervals. Sustained, annual, periodic, or intermittent workings are those under which the amount of wood cut is so regulated that the productive capacity of the forest does not decrease, but produces a sustained yield, which likewise may be annual, periodic, or intermittent.
2. n. Nautical, the condition of moving slightly or changing form under the strain of rolling: said of a vessel or any of its structural parts. See work, v. i., 9.
3. n. Action; operation: as, the workings of fancy.
4. n. Method of operation; doing.
5. n. Fermentation: as, the working of yeast.
6. n. plural The parts of a mine, quarry, or openwork in which, or near which, mining or quarrying is actually being carried on. The abandoned portions of a mine are generally designated as “old workings,” and in Cornwall as the “old man.”
7. n. The process which goes on in water when it blossoms. See work, v. i., 8.
8. Active; busy.
9. Engaged in physical toil or manual labor as a means of livelihood; laboring: as, working people. Compare working-man.
10. Connected with the carrying on of some undertaking or business: as, working expenses.

Wiktionary

1. v. present participle of work.
2. n. usually plural Operation; action.
3. n. Method of operation.
4. n. Fermentation.
5. n. To become full of a vegetable substance.
6. adj. That is or are functioning.
7. adj. That suffices but requires additional work.
8. adj. In paid employment.
9. adj. Of or relating to employment.
10. adj. Enough to allow one to use something.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. a & n. from work.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. adequate for practical use; especially sufficient in strength or numbers to accomplish something
2. adj. adopted as a temporary basis for further work
3. adj. (of e.g. a machine) performing or capable of performing
4. adj. actively engaged in paid work
5. adj. serving to permit or facilitate further work or activity
6. n. a mine or quarry that is being or has been worked