work-a-days

Updated: June 10, 2025

'This is an occupation, said the lawyer, laying down his pen and emptying his glass, 'which seems to bring him before my eyes like the Ghost of Hamlet's father, in the very clothes that he wore on work-a-days. His coat, his waistcoat, his shoes and stockings, his trousers, his hat, his wit and humour, his pathos and his umbrella, all come before me like visions of my youth.

Charles Dickens - The Old Curiosity Shop

I have seen him do this a hundred times, and never saw a big dog attempt to punish his impudence. Jeems, a black-and-tan of smaller weight, who seemed to walk upon springs, and who on work-a-days was called Jim, and James on Sundays, which day he perfectly well knew, was more like Parolles.

Various - Dog Stories from the "Spectator": being anecdotes of the intelligence, reasoning power,: affection and sympathy of dogs, selected from the: correspondence columns of "The Spectator"