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workpiece

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 1 May 2026
The American sculptor Leslie Garland Bolling with a workpiece clamped in a vise.

Etymology

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From work (noun) +‎ piece (noun), a calque of German Werkstück (“piece of work; object being worked on”).[1][2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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workpiece (plural workpieces)

  1. (chiefly machining, woodworking) A partially finished object (often composed of a raw material) which is subjected to various operations, worked on with tools, etc. [from late 19th c.]
    Make sure the workpiece is properly secured in the chuck before turning on the lathe.
    • 1870, “Scantling”, in E[rnst Friedrich] Althans [et al.], editors, Technologisches Wörterbuch in englischer, deutscher und französischer Sprache = Technological Dictionary. English–German–French. […], 2nd edition, Wiesbaden, Hesse: C[hristian] W[ilhelm] Kreidel’s Verlag, →OCLC, page 502, column 1:
      Scantling s[ubstantive] (prescribed dimension of a work[-]piece).
    • 1872, F[ranz] Reuleaux, “The Analysis of Complete Machines”, in Alex[ander] B[lackie] W[illiam] Kennedy, transl., The Kinematics of Machinery. Outlines of a Theory of Machines, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, § 130 (The Tool), page 495:
      We see that in every case the body to be worked upon becomes itself a kinematic element or the part or whole of a kinematic link. […] We shall therefore give this body, to which we shall often have to refer, a special name, calling it the work-piece of the machine. […] Our analysis therefore leads us to the following proposition: In form-changing machines the work-piece is a part or the whole of a kinematic link, and is paired or chained with the tool by so arranging the latter that it itself changes the original form of the work-piece into that of the envelope corresponding to the motion in the pair or linkage employed.
      Translating German Werkstück.
    • 1890, Julius Weisbach, revised by Gustav Herrmann, “Cam Trains”, in J[oseph] F[rederic] Klein, transl., Mechanics of Engineering and of Machinery. […], 2nd edition, volume III, part I, section II (The Mechanics of the Machinery of Transmission), New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, […], →OCLC, § 161 (Flat Cams), pages 799–800:
      Such cam plates are very often used in machines in which it is necessary to communicate to a lever or rod from a uniformly rotating shaft a motion of a perfectly determinate kind such as is prescribed by the nature of the process of by the form to be given to the work piece.
    • 1904 June, Elihu Thomson, “Electric Welding Development”, in Cassier’s Magazine: Engineering Illustrated, volume XXVI, number 2, New York, N.Y.; London: The Cassier Magazine Company […], →OCLC, page 225, column 2:
      The work pieces are held in clamps or vises, attached to or carried upon the terminals of the single-turn secondary circuit.
    • 1919 December, George W. Burley, “Cutting Power of Lathe Turning Tools: (Part II). (Being an Account of Further Experiments Made in the Machine-tool Laboratory of the University of Sheffield.)”, in The Institution of Mechanical Engineers. […] Proceedings, London: Institution [of Mechanical Engineers], […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 817:
      In connexion with the machining of the more modern alloy steels with heavy cuts at low speeds, it is often found that there is a building-up effect on the cutting edge of a high-speed steel tool which is not very different from that which occurs with plain carbon-steel tools working with lighter cuts on plain carbon-steel work-pieces. […] [A] point is always reached when the real cutting edge of the tool is too blunt to sustain the built-up edge, with the consequence that efficient cutting ceases. Before this point is reached, however, if the tool is withdrawn from the work-piece, it is generally found that, if the cutting edge shows signs of a real blunting effect jointly on the flank and lip surfaces, the cutting action of the tool cannot be restarted to produce satisfactory results with the cutting edge in that condition.
    • 1967, M. R. Calton, Welding of Dispersion-Strengthened Alloys‎[1], US Patent 3477117, page 6:
      It is theorized that when the surface velocity is below certain minimum values the material at the interface between workpieces WP-1 and WP-2 rolls up and extrudes from the interface in the form of long twisted cylindrical projections which are sometimes referred to as "dingle-berries."
    • 2019, Mehrnoosh Askapour, Carlo Ghezzi, Dino Mandrioli, Matteo Rossi, Christos Tsigkanos, “Formal Methods in Designing Critical Cyber-physical Systems”, in Maurice H. ter Beek, Alessandro Fantechi, Laura Semini, editors, From Software Engineering to Formal Methods and Tools, and Back: Essays Dedicated to Stefania Gnesi on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 11865), Cham, Zug, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 113:
      It is important for robots and humans to perform the right action, at the right time and in the right place. […] If the operator violates this instruction and, for example, tries to slightly move the workpiece while the robot is screwdriving it, then the execution may be interrupted—hence prolonged—of, worse, the operator could get hurt.
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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “workpiece, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “workpiece, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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