The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Work \Work\ (w[^u]rk), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Worked (w[^u]rkt),
   or Wrought (r[add]t); p. pr. & vb. n. Working.] [AS.
   wyrcean (imp. worthe, wrohte, p. p. geworht, gewroht); akin
   to OFries. werka, wirka, OS. wirkian, D. werken, G. wirken,
   Icel. verka, yrkja, orka, Goth. wa['u]rkjan. [root]145. See
   Work, n.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. To exert one's self for a purpose; to put forth effort for
      the attainment of an object; to labor; to be engaged in
      the performance of a task, a duty, or the like.
      [1913 Webster]

            O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work,
            To match thy goodness?                --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw
            be given you.                         --Ex. v. 18.
      [1913 Webster]

            Whether we work or play, or sleep or wake,
            Our life doth pass.                   --Sir J.
                                                  Davies.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Hence, in a general sense, to operate; to act; to perform;
      as, a machine works well.
      [1913 Webster]

            We bend to that the working of the heart. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Hence, figuratively, to be effective; to have effect or
      influence; to conduce.
      [1913 Webster]

            We know that all things work together for good to
            them that love God.                   --Rom. viii.
                                                  28.
      [1913 Webster]

            This so wrought upon the child, that afterwards he
            desired to be taught.                 --Locke.
      [1913 Webster]

            She marveled how she could ever have been wrought
            upon to marry him.                    --Hawthorne.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To carry on business; to be engaged or employed
      customarily; to perform the part of a laborer; to labor;
      to toil.
      [1913 Webster]

            They that work in fine flax . . . shall be
            confounded.                           --Isa. xix. 9.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. To be in a state of severe exertion, or as if in such a
      state; to be tossed or agitated; to move heavily; to
      strain; to labor; as, a ship works in a heavy sea.
      [1913 Webster]

            Confused with working sands and rolling waves.
                                                  --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. To make one's way slowly and with difficulty; to move or
      penetrate laboriously; to proceed with effort; -- with a
      following preposition, as down, out, into, up, through,
      and the like; as, scheme works out by degrees; to work
      into the earth.
      [1913 Webster]

            Till body up to spirit work, in bounds
            Proportioned to each kind.            --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. To ferment, as a liquid.
      [1913 Webster]

            The working of beer when the barm is put in.
                                                  --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

   8. To act or operate on the stomach and bowels, as a
      cathartic.
      [1913 Webster]

            Purges . . . work best, that is, cause the blood so
            to do, . . . in warm weather or in a warm room.
                                                  --Grew.
      [1913 Webster]
      [1913 Webster]

   To work at, to be engaged in or upon; to be employed in.

   To work to windward (Naut.), to sail or ply against the
      wind; to tack to windward. --Mar. Dict.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Working \Work"ing\,
   a & n. from Work.
   [1913 Webster]

         The word must cousin be to the working.  --Chaucer.
   [1913 Webster]

   Working beam. See Beam, n. 10.

   Working class, the class of people who are engaged in
      manual labor, or are dependent upon it for support;
      laborers; operatives; -- chiefly used in the plural.

   Working day. See under Day, n.

   Working drawing, a drawing, as of the whole or part of a
      structure, machine, etc., made to a scale, and intended to
      be followed by the workmen. Working drawings are either
      general or detail drawings.

   Working house, a house where work is performed; a
      workhouse.

   Working point (Mach.), that part of a machine at which the
      effect required; the point where the useful work is done.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

working
    adj 1: actively engaged in paid work; "the working population";
           "the ratio of working men to unemployed"; "a working
           mother"; "robots can be on the job day and night" [syn:
           working(a), on the job(p)]
    2: adequate for practical use; especially sufficient in strength
       or numbers to accomplish something; "the party has a working
       majority in the House"; "a working knowledge of Spanish"
    3: adopted as a temporary basis for further work; "a working
       draft"; "a working hypothesis"
    4: (of e.g. a machine) performing or capable of performing; "in
       running (or working) order"; "a functional set of brakes"
       [syn: running(a), operative, functional, working(a)]
    5: serving to permit or facilitate further work or activity;
       "discussed the working draft of a peace treaty"; "they need
       working agreements with their neighbor states on interstate
       projects"
    n 1: a mine or quarry that is being or has been worked [syn:
         working, workings]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

188 Moby Thesaurus words for "working":
   accomplishment, acetification, acidification, acidulation, act,
   acting, action, active, activism, activity, agency, alive,
   alkalization, answer, ascertainment, at it, at work, banausic,
   barmy, behavior, behavioral, breadwinning, businesslike, busy,
   carbonation, catalysis, chemicalization, clearing up, commercial,
   conduct, contour plowing, cracking, cultivating, cultivation,
   culture, decipherment, decoding, denouement, determination,
   diastatic, direction, disentanglement, doing, dressing, driving,
   drudging, dynamic, electrolysis, employed, employment, end,
   end result, engaged, enzymic, execution, exercise, explanation,
   exploitation, fallowing, ferment, fermentation, fermenting,
   finding, finding-out, full of business, function, functional,
   functioning, furrowing, going, going on, grinding, grubbing,
   handling, hard at it, hard at work, hardworking, harrowing, hoeing,
   hydrogenation, in exercise, in force, in hand, in harness,
   in operation, in play, in practice, in process, in the works,
   inaction, interpretation, isomerism, issue, laboring, leavening,
   listing, live, management, manipulation, materialistic, metamerism,
   metamerization, moneymaking, movements, nitration, occupation,
   occupied, on duty, on foot, on the fire, on the go, on the hop,
   on the job, on the jump, on the move, on the run, ongoing,
   operancy, operating, operation, operational, operations, operative,
   outcome, oxidation, oxidization, pegging, performance, performing,
   phosphatization, play, plodding, plowing, plugging, polymerism,
   polymerization, position isomerism, practical, practice,
   practicing, praxis, prosaic, pruning, raising, realistic, reason,
   reduction, resolution, resolving, responsibility, result, riddling,
   running, saturization, serving, slaving, slogging, solution,
   solving, sorting out, steering, straining, striving, struggling,
   sweating, swing, thinning, tied up, tilling, toiling, unraveling,
   unriddling, unscrambling, unspinning, untangling, untwisting,
   unweaving, upshot, using, utilitarian, utilization, weeding, work,
   workaday, workday, working-out, workings, yeasty