unworkingadj.
(un- prefix1 4.)
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > lack of work > [adjective] > not working or unemployed
servicelessc1450
unlabouredc1450
masterless1471
unwrought1550
unplaced1558
labourless1576
flag-fallen1609
unlabouring1619
disemployed1651
hireless1651
unengaged1654
unemployed1667
unworking1696
untoiling1748
workless1758
occupationless1822
placeless1828
out of work1833
non-working1841
unhired1852
jobless1862
out of (or in) collar1862
non-employed1876
spare1919
on the beach1923
in dry dock1927
off-the-job1950
on (also upon) the street(s)1980
unwaged1981
1696 J. Locke Some Considerations Lowering Interest (ed. 2) 43 Lazy and Unworking Shopkeepers in this being worse than Gamesters.
1724 Briton No. 24. 105 Petty includes People of all Professions and Offices..in his unworking Tenth of the Nation.
1830 W. L. Bowles Life Bp. Ken I. 201 Obese Bishops, oscitant Deans, and ‘unworking’ Clergy!
1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present iii. ix. 247 The partridge-nets of an Unworking Dilettantism.
1848 J. S. Mill Princ. Polit. Econ. II. v. x. §3. 495 A practice essentially bad, that of converting the working classes into unworking classes.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1926; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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adj.1696