working

«working» in Mova's school dictionary: doing a job, or doing its job right — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (form of work); adjective (working); noun (the working, workings)

meaning for a pupil

1) Working means doing a job, or doing its job right. tree →

2) A working machine is one that is not broken. tree →

3) The working, or working out, of a maths problem is the steps written down. tree →

4) Working people have jobs; working hours are the hours of a job. tree →

5) A working model really moves or runs. tree →

sense in the lessons

In school maths: people working (time and pay); machines that work versus broken ones; «show your working» — the steps written down. In everyday life: working parents, working hours, a working lift, a working holiday. Phrases: «working hours», «in working order», «show your working», «hard-working».

examples

• 5 people are working on the house. tree →
• Only 8 of the 10 lamps are working. tree →
• After working 4 hours she stopped. tree →
• The working shows each step. tree →
• Show your working, not just the answer. tree →
• Our science group built a working volcano. tree →
• The lift is not working, so use the stairs. tree →
• She is very hard-working and always finishes her tasks. tree →
• "I wonder you'd be working on the holiday!" said Tom. tree →

note

«Show your working» (UK) = «show your work» (US). Maths: «working» things are the good part (total − broken). The «working» of a problem is the steps written down — no number by itself.

In the corpora

• Night shifts mean working through the night and sleeping in the day; nurses, drivers, bakers and warehouse workers often do them.
• Overtime is working extra hours beyond the normal ones; sometimes it is paid at a higher rate, sometimes not paid at all.
• At the other end of working life comes retirement, when people stop paid work for good.
• The boiler heats the water and the radiators, and "packed in" means it has stopped working.
• When a person dies, their body stops working for ever; it is not sleep, and they do not come back.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «working» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.