unwork

unwork

English

Etymology 1

un- +‎ work

Verb

unwork (third-person singular simple present unworks, present participle unworking, simple past and past participle unworked)

1. (transitive) To undo or destroy (work previously done).

Etymology 2

From un- +‎ work.

Noun

unwork (uncountable)

1. The lack or absence of work; worklessness.
   • 1892, John Greenleaf Wittier, The Prose of John Greenleaf Wittier:

     That comfortable philosophy which modern transcendentalism has but dimly shadowed forth — that poetic agrarianism, which gives all to each and each to all— is the real life of this city of unwork.

   • 1963, Life - Jan 1963:

     Collective bargaining has a crisis of "unwork" — that is, work which Justice Douglas once called "unwanted . . . totally useless." So much "unwork" clutters the table that collective bargaining is no longer able to do what it should: […]