WORK OF ART

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does work of art mean? 

• WORK OF ART (noun)
  The noun WORK OF ART has 1 sense:

1. art that is a product of one of the fine arts (especially a painting or sculpture of artistic merit)

  Familiarity information: WORK OF ART used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WORK OF ART (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Art that is a product of one of the fine arts (especially a painting or sculpture of artistic merit)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("work of art" is a kind of...):

art; fine art (the products of human creativity; works of art collectively)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "work of art"):

magnum opus (a great work of art or literature)

art object; objet d'art; piece (a work of art of some artistic value)

pastiche (a work of art that imitates the style of some previous work)

period piece (any work of art whose special value lies in its evocation of a historical period)

warhorse (a work of art (composition or drama) that is part of the standard repertory but has become hackneyed from much repetition)

 Context examples 

When do you begin your great work of art, Raphaella? he asked, changing the subject abruptly after another pause, in which he had been wondering if Amy knew his secret and wanted to talk about it.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

All these wonders afforded Peggotty as much pleasure as she was able to enjoy, under existing circumstances: except, I think, St. Paul's, which, from her long attachment to her work-box, became a rival of the picture on the lid, and was, in some particulars, vanquished, she considered, by that work of art.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Over the little mantelshelf, was a picture of the Sarah Jane lugger, built at Sunderland, with a real little wooden stern stuck on to it; a work of art, combining composition with carpentry, which I considered to be one of the most enviable possessions that the world could afford.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was a pictorial sheet, and Jo examined the work of art nearest her, idly wondering what fortuitous concatenation of circumstances needed the melodramatic illustration of an Indian in full war costume, tumbling over a precipice with a wolf at his throat, while two infuriated young gentlemen, with unnaturally small feet and big eyes, were stabbing each other close by, and a disheveled female was flying away in the background with her mouth wide open.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)