workmanship
(ˈwɜːkmənʃɪp)
[f. workman + -ship.]
† 1. The performance or execution of work or a work; work, labour: in early use often, the labour or amount of labour performed on a particular task or piece of work. Obs.
| c 1375 Cursor M. 1684 (Fairf.) Loke þi werk-monshepe be sleyghe. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 288 Þanne shal borel clerkes..drede to wratthe ȝow..ȝowre werkemanship to lette. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 127 With gret sleihte Of werkmanschipe it was begrave. c 1407 Lydg. Reson & Sens. 6132 Nature..Passeth soothly werke-man-shepe. 1467–8 Rolls Parlt. V. 620/1 To oversee the werkemanship of the seid Craftymen. 1503 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 206 For making and werkmanship and inlayk of the samyn xx li. 1552 in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 124 The charges of garniture & workemanshipp with stuf & other prouisions bought & made of new this year. 1581 G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 9 b, The knowledge of..handycrafts, of workmanships. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. xciv. ii, Sight shall he want, From whose first workmanshipp the eye did grow? 1612 Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 163 Paid for mendinge the bell ropes with leather and workmanshipp, x d. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 150 A table..the Jewels wherof they valued at fiftie thousand Crownes, and the workmanship at twelve thousand Crownes. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 297 In case they would be at the charge of bringing stone, he would find Workmanship, and build them a Tower. 1751 C. Labelye Westm. Bridge 78 All Workmanship to be performed at a fixed Price. 1793 J. Lodge Topogr. Hist. Heref. 54 Second year's rent and workmanship 2 3 0. 1818 Min. Evid. Committee Ribbon Weavers 195 An instance..where a master took a man up to a magistrate for spoiling the work, and the man paid every penny of the workmanship of it. |
† 2. Action, agency, operation. Obs.
| 1534 More Treat. Passion Wks. 1343/2 By the woorkemanshippe of his heauenly mercy. 1545 Bale Myst. Iniq. 20 b, Eyther has prestes wyues of their owne in those dayes, or els there was some other good workemanshyp a brode. 1546 ― Engl. Votaries i. 4 b, The deceytfull workemanshyp of the instrumentes of Sathan. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. i. v. 19 Before his audacious workmanship the Churches were rul'd in common by the Presbyters. |
† b. Creation, making, manufacture, production.
| 1578 Timme Calvin on Gen. 49 After that the workmanshippe of the World was fully perfected. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. i. 70 That it might haue 3. hot moneths togither to work it to his ful perfection... I haue thought good..to set downe mine own fansie, for the easier stirring vppe of this Malmesey to his workmanship. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth 259 'Tis a great Mystery..how Tubal-Cain..could ever have taught the Workmanship and Use of them. |
† c. Make, fashion. Obs. rare.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man v. 80 b, As he varied from the workemanshyp of other bodyes, so had he one passage also of choler that visited the ventricle. |
3. That which is wrought or made by a workman or craftsman; (a person's) work. Also transf. something produced: arch. exc. as in piece of workmanship, which may properly belong to 1.
| 1523 Act 13 & 14 Hen. VIII, c. 2 A proper marke..by the which their wares, vessels, and workmanshippes..may be knowen. 1535 Coverdale 2 Esdras viii. 7 We all are one workmanshipe of thy handes. 1549 Compl. Scot. vii. 69 The pleisand verkmenschips that vas in the middis of hyr mantil. 1551 T. Wilson Logic L ij b, The daie..whiche is the effecte, or woorkemanship of the Sunne. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. a ij, Formally, Number, is the Vnion, and Vnitie of Vnits. Which vnyting and knitting, is the workemanship of our minde. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 18 To worship..the workemanship of mens hands. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 183 It was the onely quarrell he pickt with his workmanship, that man was alone. 1710 Prior Examiner No. 6 ¶2 A curious Piece of poetical Workmanship. 1729 Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 102 Human nature, considered as the divine workmanship. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. vii. §12 Inconsistent ideas which are often the workmanship of their own brains. 1751 Affect. Narr. Wager 28 A little Hut,..the Workmanship, I guess, of some Indian. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Study Nat. xi. III. 266 This ball is the workmanship of the ants. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art i. 63 A new piece of gold or silver..with noble workmanship on it. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xiv, There's no denying she's a rare bit o' workmanship. 1892 Westcott Gospel of Life 200 As the world was His workmanship; so man was made in His image. |
4. Skill or cunning as a workman; craftsmanship as exhibited in a piece of work.
| 1529 Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871) 6 Of gud and sufficient stuff..and sufficient werkmanschip. 1541 Copland Galyen's Terap. 2 C iv, For to cut is a redy and easy thynge, but for to heale by medycamentes is a greater thynge and that requyreth workemanshyp. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 68 The inhabitants..doe excell in curious woorkmanshippe and mechanicall inventions. 1663 Boyle Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos. i. i. 17 Idiots admire in things the Beauty of their Materials, but Artists that of the Workmanship. 1678 Moxon Mech. Exerc. iv. 66 It is counted a piece of good workmanship in a Joyner, to have the craft of bearing his hand so curiously even. 1838 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) III. vi. 93 Some rings of negro workmanship. 1889 Contemp. Rev. Dec. 911 It is subject..that makes plays enduring, plus of course the requisite dramatic workmanship. 1909 Mem. W. E. H. Lecky 48 He had a high ideal of literary workmanship. |