LABOUR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Labour

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/lˈeɪbˌaʊr/ /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.

labour n. Same as labor; British spelling. (Chiefly Brit.)

verb

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.

See images of 'Labour'

Etymology of 'Labour'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Labour" Quotes from Famous Books

... species, and in the mongrel of some races, the offspring differ according as which of the two species, or of the two races, is the father (as in the common mule and hinny) and which the mother. Some races will breed together, which differ so greatly in size, that the dam often perishes in labour; so it is with some species when crossed; when the dam of one species has borne offspring to the male of another species, her succeeding offspring are sometimes stained (as in Lord Morton's mare by the quagga, wonderful as the fact{264} ...

— The Foundations of the Origin of Species - Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 • Charles Darwin

... Morgen-het-ache - Morning headache. Moskopolite,(Amer.) - Cosmopolite. Mossyhead is the German student phrase for an old student. Mud-sill - The longitudinal timber laid upon the ground to form the foundation for a railway. Hence figuratively applied by the labour-despising Southern gentry to the labouring classes as the substratum of society. Murmulte - Murmured. Mutter,(Ger.) ...

— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland

... son," writes the mother, "with our letters entreating your care for improving all good in him and restraining all irregularities, as he is the hope and only stem of his father. I implore the Almighty, and labour for all means conducible thereto; I conceive your discreet government and admonition may much promote it. Tell me whether you find him tractable or disorderly: his disposition is good, and his natural parts reasonable, but his acquirements meaner than I desire: however ...

— English Travellers of the Renaissance • Clare Howard

... shoe, an accident which threatened to put a stop to his journey by laming the animal. The residence of a smith was his first object of inquiry, in which he received little satisfaction from the dullness or sullenness of one or two peasants, early bound for their labour, who gave brief and indifferent answers to his questions on the subject. Anxious, at length, that the partner of his journey should suffer as little as possible from the unfortunate accident, Tressilian dismounted, and led ...

— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott

... subject of connecting China and New South Wales (p. vi) with Great Britain, through the West Indies, may at first sight appear, both as regards time and expense, still few things are more practicable. The labour and expense of crossing the Isthmus of America, either by Panama or by Lake Nicaragua, by a land conveyance, is trifling. With eight steam-boats, ONLY FOUR ADDITIONAL to the number already in the West Indies, added to the present sailing-packet establishment, ...

— A General Plan for a Mail Communication by Steam, Between Great Britain and the Eastern and Western Parts of the World • James MacQueen

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