worker
[
wur
-ker]
/ˈwɜr kər/
noun
1.
a person or thing that works.
2.
a laborer or employee:
steel workers.
3.
a person engaged in a particular field, activity, or cause:
a worker in psychological research; a worker for the Republican Party.
4.
Entomology
.
a member of a caste of sexually underdeveloped, nonreproductive bees, specialized to collect food and maintain the hive.
a similar member of a specialized caste of ants, termites, or wasps.
5.
Printing.
one of a set of electrotyped plates used to print from (contrasted with
molder
).
6.
any of several rollers covered with card clothing that work in combination with the stripper rollers and the cylinder in the carding of fibers.
Origin
1300-50;
Middle English
werker, worcher.
See
work
,
-er
1
Related forms
nonworker,
noun
subworker,
noun
Examples from the web for
worker
Suddenly, a paint-splattered
worker
picking at a nearby wall shouts, waves his steel trowel and points.
Then the health
worker
, or even the patient, can take a picture of the stamp with a cellphone.
worker
animals dig the burrows that the whole clan inhabits, using their prominent teeth and snouts.
Beekeepers would lift the lid of a hive to find only the queen and a few stragglers, the
worker
bees gone.
But with increased
worker
productivity came the incredible paranoia that meth, more than any other drug, is known for.
Always a boss and never a
worker
, always a liar, always a thief and never caught.
Visit the library and ask a librarian, not a student
worker
.
If you need help at the library, be sure to ask a librarian though instead of a run-of-the-mill library
worker
.
Even such customer-oriented salespeople were found to lose all respect from customers for having barked at a co-
worker
.
One might refer to the multi-national crews of the space shuttles and station as
worker
bees in an orbiting hive.
British Dictionary definitions for
worker
worker
/
ˈwɜːkə
/
noun
1.
a person or thing that works, usually at a specific job:
a good worker,
a research worker
2.
an employee in an organization, as opposed to an employer or manager
3.
a manual labourer or other employee working in a manufacturing or other industry
4.
any other member of the working class
5.
a sterile female member of a colony of bees, ants, or wasps that forages for food, cares for the larvae, etc
Derived Forms
workerless,
adjective
Word Origin and History for
worker
n.
as a type of bee, 1747, agent noun from
work
(v.).