Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Work Projects Administration

(Encyclopedia)Work Projects Administration (WPA), former U.S. government agency, established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Works Progress Administration; it was renamed th...

Works Progress Administration

(Encyclopedia)Works Progress Administration: see Work Projects Administration. ...

Public Works Administration

(Encyclopedia)Public Works Administration (PWA), in U.S. history, New Deal government agency established (1933) by the Congress as the Federal Administration of Public Works, pursuant to the National Industrial Rec...

work

(Encyclopedia)work, in physics and mechanics, transfer of energy by a force acting to displace a body. Work is equal to the product of the force and the distance through which it produces movement. Although both fo...

social work

(Encyclopedia)social work, organized effort to help individuals and families to adjust themselves to the community, as well as to adapt the community to the needs of such persons and families. Social work emerge...

National Youth Administration

(Encyclopedia)National Youth Administration (NYA), former U.S. government agency established in 1935 within the Works Progress Administration; it was transferred in 1939 to the Federal Security Agency and was place...

drawn work

(Encyclopedia)drawn work: see lace.

crochet work

(Encyclopedia)crochet work krōshāˈ [key], form of knitting done with a hook, by means of which loops of thread or yarn are drawn through other, preceding loops. Crochet stitches are all based on the chain or sin...

Cosmati work

(Encyclopedia)Cosmati work: see mosaic.

topiary work

(Encyclopedia)topiary work tōˈpēĕrˌē [key], pruning and training of shrubs and trees into ornamental shapes, used in landscape gardening. Elaborate topiary work in which trees and shrubs are clipped to resemb...