Definition of "put to work" []

• Cause to work (verb)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "Sharpe and Harper were put to work on a capstan that raised one of the anchors, then sent down to the gundeck where they helped to stack nine - and twelve-pounder shots in the ready racks about the frigate's three masts."
• "Back in the 1950's, Americans were put to work building the Interstate Highway system and that helped expand the middle class in this country."
• "These he put to work laying surface mines quickly in the obvious routes of approach, the roads and tracks, in order to channel a fast-deploying enemy into specific killing zones."