Work vs Attempt - What's the difference?
work | attempt | Related terms |
Employment.
#Labour, occupation, job.
#:
#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
#*:Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand / That you yet know not of.
#*Bible, 2 (w) xxxi. 21
#*:In every work that he beganhe did it with all his heart, and prospered.
#*, chapter=15
, title= #The place where one is employed.
#:
Effort.
#Effort expended on a particular task.
#:
##Sustained human effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.
##:
#(lb) A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move.
#:
#*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= #(lb) A nonthermal First Law energy in transit between one form or repository and another. Also, a means of accomplishing such transit.
Sustained effort to achieve a goal or result, especially overcoming obstacles.
:
*
*:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
(lb) Product; the result of effort.
# The result of a particular manner of production.
#:
# Something produced using the specified material or tool.
#:
#(lb) A literary, artistic, or intellectual production.
#:
#:
#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
#*:to leave no rubs or blotches in the work
#*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
#*:The work some praise, / And some the architect.
#*
#*:“[…] We are engaged in a great work , a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?”
#(lb) A fortification.
#:
The staging of events to appear as real.
(lb) Ore before it is dressed.
:(Raymond)
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).
# Followed by as . Said of one's job title
#* , chapter=17
, title= # Followed by for . Said of a company or individual who employs.
# Followed by with . General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients.
To effect by gradual degrees.
* Addison
To embroider with thread.
To set into action.
To cause to ferment.
To ferment.
* Francis Bacon
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= (figuratively) To influence.
To effect by gradual degrees; as, to work into the earth.
To move in an agitated manner.
* Addison
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:
To try.
* Longfellow
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= (obsolete) To try to move, by entreaty, by afflictions, or by temptations; to tempt.
* Thackeray
(archaic) To try to win, subdue, or overcome.
* Shakespeare
(archaic) To attack; to make an effort or attack upon; to try to take by force.
* Motley
The action of trying at something.
* We made an attempt to cross the stream, but didn't manage.
* This poem is much better than the feeble attempt of mine.
* It was worth the attempt .
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter
, title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered
, volume=100, issue=2, page=87
, magazine=
An assault or attack, especially an assassination attempt.
* 1584' ''No man can charge us of any '''attempt against the realm. (Allen's Defence Of English Catholics, cited after Edinburgh review 1883, p. 378)
Work is a related term of attempt.
As nouns the difference between work and attempt
is that work is employment while attempt is the action of trying at something.As verbs the difference between work and attempt
is that work is to do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers while attempt is to try.work
English
(wikipedia work)Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) worc, weorc, . English cognates include bulwark, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright.Noun
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}
Lee S. Langston, magazine=(American Scientist)
The Adaptable Gas Turbine, passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo , meaning "vortex", and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work .}}
See http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0004055.
Synonyms
* (employment) See also * (productive activity) See alsoDerived terms
* artwork * at work * body of work * bodywork * breastwork * bridgework * busy work * casework * clockwork * derivative work * dirty work * dreamwork * earthwork * field work, fieldwork * finger work * firework * fretwork * groundwork * guesswork * hard work * handiwork * homework * housework * ironwork * leg work, legwork * lifework * masterwork * needlework * openwork * overwork * paintwork * paperwork * patchwork * piece of work * piecework * public works * reference work * road work, roadwork * schoolwork * shift work, shiftwork * spadework * teamwork * waterworks * waxwork * wickerwork * woodwork * work ethic * work of art * worklist * workly * workout * workplace * workroom * workshop * workstation * workstead * workupSee also
* -ingReferences
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
- I work''' in a national park; she '''works''' in the human resources department; he mostly '''works in logging, but sometimes works in carpentry
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.
- she works''' for Microsoft; he '''works for the president
- I work''' closely with my Canadian counterparts; you '''work''' with computers; she '''works with the homeless people from the suburbs
- 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
- 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.
- the working of beer when the barm is put in
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
- A ship works in a heavy sea.
- confused with working sands and rolling waves
- ‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’
Derived terms
* work at * work off * work on * work out * work over * work up * rework * worker * working * work it * work like a beaver * work like a charm * work like a dog * work like a horse * work like a Trojan * work the crowd * work the room * work to rule * work wondersattempt
English
Verb
(en verb)- I attempted to sing, but my throat was too hoarse.
- to attempt an escape from prison
- Something attempted , something done, / Has earned a night's repose.
Sarah Glaz
Ode to Prime Numbers, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
- It made the laughter of an afternoon / That Vivien should attempt the blameless king.
- one who attempts the virtue of a woman
- Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further: / Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute.
- to attempt the enemy's camp
- without attempting his adversary's life
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* take a stab at, take a run atNoun
(en noun)citation, passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea}}