Q: uninstall appleworks without the disc

Drag it to the Trash.

There is also an AppleWorks folder in your user Library. It occupies very little space and will be inert, but if you want to delete it drag it to the Trash also.

Probably because Apple wants to spare you the inconvenience of having to locate the Preferences folder.

I searched my Macs and that really is all there is to it.

Be sure you really want to get rid of AppleWorks... you will not be able to open documents created with earlier versions of AppleWorks, except by using AppleWorks. For example, Pages cannot open AppleWorks 5 documents.

Read a brody's User Tip: AppleWorks for the modern day, a migration tip, for more information.