phrasal-verbssentence-meaning
I was watching "Futurama" in English and I listening:
"It's not working out, fry. I put
your stuff out on the sidewalk!"
What is the meaning of "working out" in this way?
"work out" means work out, in the park or something like that (I think).
It should be "I'm not working out", Is the meaning difference?
(I heard it in this episode 00:38)
As has been mentioned in the comments, although you have gathered together quite a few definitions and examples of usage, a common thread runs through them all in terms of what 'figure out' means.
In a broad sense of the word, to figure out something means to understand something clearly, however, what differentiates it from similar expressions such as to realise something or to find out something is the process involved in coming to that conclusion.
When we realise something or find out something, we are able to comprehend something that we couldn't comprehend before, but that may not have been our intention. Realisations can often happen by chance - something may spark a connection, and you then see it in a new light.
For example:
I just realised that there's an arrow hidden between the E and the x in the 'FedEx' logo!
Similarly with 'finding out something' - we may have come by the information passively.
I just found out that my girlfriend was cheating on me.
Figuring something out, on the other hand, implies a conscious effort to study a matter or situation and actively search for the answer or understanding of it. Rather than by chance or happenstance, it is normally done with a specific goal in mind.
- We need to figure out what went wrong.
- It took them ages to figure out how to assemble the chest of drawers.
- When you've figured the answer out, put your hand up.
- They spent 20 minutes figuring out how to open the box.
There is a broad range of examples above, but all of these exhibit intent to come to a conclusion.
"Working on" is appropriate for all of them.
"Working at" might be used for something in the future, e.g. "We're working at getting everything ready on time.", though "on" is probably the more common.
That said, I'd not be surprised if someone states the usage is different in another locale.
"He is working at Deutsche Bank" is used as the preposition for a specific place of work, or the alternative, "He is working for Deutsche Bank."
Best Answer
The dictionary definition that @Cardinal linked to is
In the context here, "Fry" is the name of a character and the thing that isn't successful is his relationship with Leela. Leela is telling him that their relationship isn't successful; she is "breaking up" with him, and so she has taken his stuff and left it outside.
The expression "It's not working out" is a reasonably common way to tell someone that you don't want to be their boyfriend/girlfriend anymore.