Forwork
verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 To forfeit (a possession, privilege, etc.); ruin (oneself) by one's own conduct. archaic, transitive
- 2 To obstruct; barricade; block. archaic, transitive
"And Æthelwold sat within the ham, with the men that to him had bowed, and he had forwrought [obstructed] all the gates in, and said that he would either there live or there lie."
- 3 To do wrong to; injure; scathe. archaic, transitive
- 4 To overwork; exhaust with toil. archaic, transitive
"And toiling so, well-nigh forwrought, She prayed full fervently; […]"
Example
More examples"And Æthelwold sat within the ham, with the men that to him had bowed, and he had forwrought [obstructed] all the gates in, and said that he would either there live or there lie."
Etymology
From Middle English forwirken, forwerken, forwurchen, from Old English forwyrċan (“to do wrong, sin; ruin, undo, destroy; condemn, convict, curse; forfeit; barricade, obstruct, close up”), from Proto-Germanic *frawurkijaną, equivalent to for- + work. Cognate with Dutch verwerken (“to digest, assimilate, work up, put into action”), German verwirken (“to forfeit”), Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (frawaurkjan).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.