ˈwork-up
[f. vbl. phr. to work up: see work v. 40.]
1. Printing. A piece of spacing material that works loose in the forme and prints a smudge, or the mark so printed. Also, an instance of this.
| 1948 R. R. Karch Graphic Arts Procedures x. 270 The pressfeeder watches the sheets carefully so that if work⁓ups appear he will not spoil the run. A work-up is spacing material that has risen in the form so that it prints on the sheet. 1950 D. G. Hymes Production in Advertising vii. 279 Alert pressmen can..stop the press, and hammer down the workups after only a few sheets have been spoiled. 1967 Karch & Buber Offset Processes ii. 24 The letterpress printer may be plagued by ‘work-up’. |
2. Med. A diagnostic examination of a patient. orig. U.S.
| 1961 in Webster. 1966 Current Diagnosis 206/2 (heading) Diagnostic work-up for patients with diastolic hypertension. 1972 Sci. Amer. Aug. 71/3 A mother who was told that her child would be ‘admitted for a work-up’ did not realise that he was to be hospitalized. 1977 New Yorker 12 Sept. 103/1 We gave him the usual workup, including neurological and ear-nose-and-throat evaluations. 1978 Parsons & Sommers Gynecol. (ed. 2) xx. 313/2 A few cases where the borderline between virilism and hirsutism is hazy will benefit from an extensive work-up. |
3. Chem. The experimental procedures followed to separate and purify substances for analysis or the products of a chemical reaction.
| 1967 Chem. Abstr. LXVII. 10187/2 (heading) Workup of chlorohydrin process waste products. 1971 Canad. Jrnl. Chem. XLIX. 2467/1 The resulting mixture was then heated to reflux for 1 h to complete the acetylation and gave after usual work-up a quantitative yield of [compound] 12. 1978 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. C. 3548 Water added during work-up serving as the proton source at C-1. |
4. The process of bringing a ship into seaworthy condition.
| 1971 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 27 May 35/4 Canadian forces ships work on a 20-month cycle basis containing four parts: refit, trials, workups, and operational. 1978 Navy News Oct. 2/6 After trials and work-up the Achilles will return to Chatham for Christmas. |