handwork

From Middle English hondwerk, from Old English handweorc (“work done by hand; handiwork”), from Proto-Germanic *handuwerką; equivalent to hand +‎ work. Cognate with Dutch handwerk, German Handwerk, Swedish hantverk.

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handwork (countable and uncountable, plural handworks)

1. Work done by the hands, as opposed to by machine.

• handiwork

• manual labor (sometimes synonymous, but sometimes strenuous and unskilled rather than intricate and skilled)

handwork (third-person singular simple present handworks, present participle handworking, simple past and past participle handworked)

1. (transitive) To work (materials) by hand, without the use of a machine.