works

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɜːks/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɝks/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ks

works

1. plural of work in its countable senses

works (plural works)

1. A factory or factories, or similar collection(s) of buildings.

   The steel works almost fills the valley.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:

     In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.

works pl (plural only)

1. A mechanism or machine; the means by which something happens.

   A stray wrench can really gum up the works.

2. (with "the") Everything or everything that is available or possible; especially, all available toppings on food.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:everything

   I'll have a Behemoth Burger with the works.

   • 1974, Brian Eno (lyrics and music), “Dead Finks Don't Talk”, in Here Come the Warm Jets:

     My my they wanted the works, can you this and that / I never got a letter back

   • 1985, Ralph Farquhar, Krush Groove, spoken by Terri Beiker (Charles Stettler):

     You like this? Limousine, champagne, the works. I'd get you on MTV, a national tour. Sponsorship. You name it.

3. (with "the") Drastic treatment; abuse; the axe (dismissal).
   • 1953, Jimmy Kennedy (lyrics), “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”:

     Why did Constantinople get the works?

   • 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, Penguin, published 1996, →ISBN, page 201:

     It's not, really, but I didn't want consolation. I wanted the works, and I got it, too.

4. (slang) A drug addict's equipment: syringe, needle, etc.

works

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of work

• all the way
• in the works
• the whole nine yards
• the whole shebang
• the whole shop