a person or thing that works, usually at a specific job: a good worker, a research worker an employee in an organization, as opposed to an employer or manager a manual labourer or other employee working in a manufacturing or other industry any other member of the working class a sterile female member of a colony of bees, ants, or wasps that forages for food, cares for the larvae, etc
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
work•er
(wûr′kər),USA pronunciation n.
- a person or thing that works.
- a laborer or employee:steel workers.
- a person engaged in a particular field, activity, or cause:a worker in psychological research; a worker for the Republican party.
- Insects[Entomol.]
- a member of a caste of sexually underdeveloped, nonreproductive bees, specialized to collect food and maintain the hive. See illus. under bee.
- a similar member of a specialized caste of ants, termites, or wasps.
- Printingone of a set of electrotyped plates used to print from (contrasted with molder).
- any of several rollers covered with card clothing that work in combination with the stripper rollers and the cylinder in the carding of fibers.
- Middle English werker, worcher. See work, -er1 1300–50
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'farm worker' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):