unfinished work
Task still ongoing
Unfinished work is a task, project, or creation that remains incomplete.
The phrase often carries emotional weight—suggesting obligation, regret, or anticipation: I have unfinished work to attend to before I can relax.
In creative contexts, an artist's unfinished work may be published posthumously or left deliberately incomplete.
Unfinished business implies matters requiring resolution, often interpersonal.
- sketchHasty informal drawing
- rough draftUnpolished first attempt
- draftPreliminary version of text
- rough cutUnfinished film version
- outlineSummary of key elements
mess · manuscript · prototype · incomplete · limbo · blueprint · hypothesis · report · inconclusive · final stretch · backlog · to-do list · knitting · abandoned · concept art · scrapbook · outstanding · storyboard
- shoddinessslipshod, slapdash, hack job, botch job, botch
- creative failuresbox office bomb, flop, dud, failed experiment
- unpreparednessunpreparedness, unreadiness, unpracticed, untrained, inexperience
- unreleaseddraft, prototype, beta, alpha, leak
- backlog itemstasks, tickets, bugs, features, stories
- blundersblunder, blunders, blundered, mistakes, botch
unfinished workfinished product
Completed manufactured good
done deal · closed file · mission accomplished · checked off
unfinished workfinal version
Completed, approved iteration
finished product · finished article · definitive edition · final cut · master copy
unfinished workmasterpiece
Supreme artistic achievement
magnum opus · opus · tour de force · clean copy · fair copy