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What is "workmanlike"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
workmanlike
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a workmanlike campaign
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ In Dianetics, a workmanlike job of clearing away the debris in and around the machine is performed.
▪ In his nightmares, he churned out workmanlike code for creepy bosses in suits.
▪ In his slow, workmanlike way he takes a pink crayon and colors a nose on every bunny.
▪ It was a dour struggle between two workmanlike teams.
▪ Minton's sober and workmanlike drawings instance his delight in registering rhythmic activity and industrial shapes.
▪ Not especially gracious, but squat and workmanlike, plodding with tenacity from port to port.
▪ So here, too, is a noisy engine, but in this application its workmanlike character is not inappropriate.
▪ The current pastry department turns out workmanlike, uninspired confections that read more charmingly than they taste.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Workmanlike

Workmanlike \Work"man*like`\, a. Becoming a workman, especially a skillful one; skillful; well performed.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
workmanlike

"efficient, no-nonsense," 1739, from workman + like (adj.).

Wiktionary
workmanlike

a. 1 Performed with the skill of an artisan or craftsman. 2 Done competently but without flair.

WordNet
workmanlike

adj. worthy of a good workman; "a competent job"; "the book is a workmanlike job with chronology and bibliography and index"

Usage examples of "workmanlike".

And with it a whisper of air movement touching the right side of my throat, and immediately thereafter the workmanlike chud of lead into a palm trunk a hundred yards behind me.

He was a workmanlike but not a charismatic speaker, reading with level intonation from the autocue on the transparent lectern in front of him, and punching up the relevant slides at the relevant moments.

Dorwan and Bannat had done a good workmanlike job, and Kharl had paid them a handsome bonus immediately after his return to Cantyl.

Artfully grimed windows kept out most of the sun and inside the walls were decorated with reprinted Unsettlement photography and Quellist epigrams in workmanlike little frames.

The ropework hilt was almost enclosed with a black guard, which was plain and workmanlike.

She was competent and graceful enough on the rosinback, but workmanlike, not sprightly and vivacious.

It was not as thin as the illusions that Rutaro and his friends could produce, but a very workmanlike job to put all that depth of focus into a small package.

With the same marvellous patience, and with the same single shark's tooth, of his one poor jack-knife, he will carve you a bit of bone sculpture, not quite as workmanlike, but as close packed in its maziness of design, as the Greek savage, Achilles's shield.