works

A factory or factories, or a similar collection(s) of industrial facilities.

Noun plural, plural only

  1. A mechanism or machinery; the means by which something happens.
    • Aged and degraded oil and grease can really gum up the works.
    • Something clicked in his throat, as if he had works in him like a clock, and was going to strike. - 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and...
  2. Everything or everything that is available or possible; especially, all available toppings on food.
    • I'll have a Behemoth Burger with the works.
    • My my they wanted the works, can you this and that / I never got a letter back - 1974, Brian Eno, “Dead Finks Don't Talk”, in Here Come the Warm Jets:
    • You like this? Limousine, champagne, the works. I'd get you on MTV, a national tour. Sponsorship. You name it. - 1985, Ralph Farquhar, Krush Groove, spoken by Terri Beiker (Charles Stettler):

    Synonyms: all the marbles bag and baggage everytang everything but the galley stove everything but the kitchen sink everything under the sun full monty hook line and sinker kit and caboodle lock stock and barrel the whole bang shoot the whole nine yards the works whole ball of wax whole hog whole enchilada whole kit and caboodle whole package whole shebang whole shitting match whole shooting match whole smash

  3. Drastic treatment; abuse; the axe (dismissal).
    • Why did Constantinople get the works? - 1953, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, Jimmy Kennedy (lyrics):
    • "Why don't we pull him in on tax evasion or misuse of the mails or parkin' in front of a hydrant or sumpn? Take him down to the Tombs and give 'em the works? If the Feds won't do it, we'd be glad to oblige." - 1954, Ian...
    • It's not, really, but I didn't want consolation. I wanted the works, and I got it, too. - 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 161:
  4. A heroin or other drug addict's equipment: syringes, needles, etc.
    • While in San Francisco, where the AIDS crisis was particularly devastating, they saw numerous public awareness signs reading “Bleach Your Works” posted around the city, urging IV drug users to clean their needles with...

Derived

spanner in the works

Noun form of, plural

  1. plural of work in its countable senses

Hyponyms

bronzeworks good works public works

Related

worked wrought

Derived

clerk of the works clerk of works works righteousness

Noun Entry 3

  1. A factory or factories, or a similar collection(s) of industrial facilities.
    • The steel works almost fills the valley.
    • 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...

Forms

works

Hyponyms

battleworks bleachworks brassworks brickworks bronzeworks candleworks cement works chainworks coalworks cokeworks copperworks deadworks dyeworks enamelworks engineering works false works fishworks freezing works gas works gasworks glassworks gunworks headworks iceworks

Derived

gum up the works spanner in the works Stoke Works works agreement works council works councillor works team wrench in the works

Verb

  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of work

Related

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