Verb

To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.

* Shakespeare

Hew them to pieces; hack their bones asunder.

* 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6

Among other things he found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which he immediately proceeded to cut his finger. Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy.

To shape; to form.

to hew out a sepulchre

* Bible, Is. li. 1

Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn .

* Alexander Pope

rather polishing old works than hewing out new

(US) To act according to, to conform to; usually construed with (to).

* 1905 , Albert Osborn, : A Biography , ^] Jennings & Graham, [http://books.google.com/books?id=I3UEAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA428&dq=hewed page 428,

Few men measured up to his standard of righteousness; he hewed to the line.

* 1998 , and Lawrence Davidson, Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines , Collectors Press, Inc., ISBN 1-888054-12-3, page 103,

Inside the stories usually hewed to a consistent formula: no matter how outlandish and weird the circumstances, in the end everything had to have a natural, if not plausible, ending—frequently, though not always, involving a mad scientist.

* 2008 , , Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik , Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-12990-8, page 28,

Faculty members and students alike were buzzing with the fashionable nostrums that dominated U.S. education discourse in the late sixties,

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=May 27 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid on the Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=Hewing to the old comedy convention of beginning a speech by randomly referencing something in eyesight, Homer begins his talk about the birds and the bees by saying that women are like refrigerators: they’re all about six feet tall and weigh three hundred pounds and make ice cubes. }}

*{{quote-web

, date =2013-10-02 , first =Alex , last =Pappademas , title =Leuqes! LEUQES! LEUQES!'' – The ''Shining sequel and what it says about Stephen King , site =Grantland.com , url =http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9751517/the-shining-sequel-career-stephen-king , accessdate = 2013-10-16 }}

*:King recovered the rights on the condition that he'd stop publicly disparaging Kubrick's version. "For a long time I hewed that line," he told CBS News in June. "And then Mr. Kubrick died. So now I figured, what the hell. I've gone back to saying mean things about it."

Verb

To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.

# Followed by in'' (or ''at , etc.) Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business).

I work''' in a national park;  she '''works''' in the human resources department;  he mostly '''works in logging, but sometimes works in carpentry

# Followed by as . Said of one's job title

#* , chapter=17

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}

I work as a cleaner.

# Followed by for . Said of a company or individual who employs.

she works''' for Microsoft;  he '''works for the president

# Followed by with . General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients.

I work''' closely with my Canadian counterparts;  you '''work''' with computers;  she '''works with the homeless people from the suburbs

To effect by gradual degrees.

he worked''' his way through the crowd;  the dye '''worked''' its way through;  using some tweezers, she '''worked the bee sting out of her hand

* Addison

So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains / Of rushing torrents and descending rains, / Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines, / Till by degrees the floating mirror shines.

To embroider with thread.

To set into action.

To cause to ferment.

To ferment.

* Francis Bacon

the working of beer when the barm is put in

To exhaust, by working.

To shape, form, or improve a material.

To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.

To operate in or through; as, to work the phones.

To provoke or excite; to influence.

To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.

To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.

To cause to work.

To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about

(figuratively) To influence.

To effect by gradual degrees; as, to work into the earth.

To move in an agitated manner.

A ship works in a heavy sea.

* Addison

confused with working sands and rolling waves

To behave in a certain way when handled;

(transitive, with two objects, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something).

* {{quote-book, passage=So sad it seemed, and its cheek-bones gleamed, and its fingers flicked the shore; / And it lapped and lay in a weary way, and its hands met to implore; / That I gently said: “Poor, restless dead, I would never work you woe; / Though the wrong you rue you can ne’er undo, I forgave you long ago.”

, author=Robert W. Service , title=(Ballads of a Cheechako), chapter=(The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike), year=1909}}

(obsolete) To hurt; to ache.

* 1485 , Sir (Thomas Malory), ''(w, Le Morte d'Arthur), Book XXI:

‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’