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Labor   /lˈeɪbər/   Listen
noun
Labor  n.  (Written also labour)  
1.
Physical toil or bodily exertion, especially when fatiguing, irksome, or unavoidable, in distinction from sportive exercise; hard, muscular effort directed to some useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, and like; servile toil; exertion; work. "God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive."
2.
Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of compiling a history.
3.
That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort. "Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for."
4.
Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth. "The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity; and feared She'll with the labor end."
5.
Any pang or distress.
6.
(Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
7.
A measure of land in Mexico and Texas.
8.
(Mining.) A stope or set of stopes. (Sp. Amer.)
Synonyms: Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry; painstaking. See Toll.



verb
Labor  v. t.  
1.
To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil. "The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only labored by children."
2.
To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care. "To labor arms for Troy."
3.
To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge strenuously; as, to labor a point or argument.
4.
To belabor; to beat. (Obs.)



Labor  v. i.  (past & past part. labored; pres. part. laboring)  (Written also labour)  
1.
To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to work; to toil. "Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden."
2.
To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any design; to strive; to take pains.
3.
To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard, wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden; to be burdened; often with under, and formerly with of. "The stone that labors up the hill." "The line too labors, and the words move slow." "To cure the disorder under which he labored." "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
4.
To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
5.
(Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Labor" Quotes from Famous Books



... thoughtful. Her life had not been a very happy one. Had it not been for her intense love for music, had her heart not been bound up in her violin it would have been a sad, dull life, full of toil and wearisome labor. In after years, when the showers that fell so steadily during her younger days, cleared away, the bright, animated and merry side of her nature came out and the demure little girl became ...
— Camilla: A Tale of a Violin - Being the Artist Life of Camilla Urso • Charles Barnard

... Pakistan and about 1.2 million in Iran. Another 1 million have probably moved into and around urban areas within Afghanistan. Gross domestic product has fallen substantially over the past 18 years because of the loss of labor and capital and the disruption of trade and transport. Much of the population continues to suffer from insufficient food, clothing, housing, and medical care. Inflation remains a serious problem throughout the country, with one estimate putting the rate at 240% in Kabul in ...
— The 1998 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... they make another hawl like that well have about as much to fire at up at the front as we did back on the range. Id never seen any Fritzes so Angus an I went down to the pen this afternoon to see if they were breakin the child labor law or had any wimmin with machine guns tied to them like you ...
— "Same old Bill, eh Mable!" • Edward Streeter

... After incredible labor we succeeded, at length, in getting the longboat over the side without material accident, and into this we crowded the whole of the crew and most of the passengers. This party made off immediately, and, after undergoing much suffering, finally arrived, in safety, at Ocracoke Inlet, on ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 4 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... the cultivation of a taste for devotional reading. As a rule, those who have a taste for spiritual books and gratify that taste prosper in the Lord, while those who have no relish for such books labor at a great disadvantage. Some one has said that "he who begins a devout life without a taste for spiritual reading may consider the ordinary difficulties multiplied in his case by ten." The most spiritual men of all ages ...
— How to Live a Holy Life • C. E. Orr


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