Link Centre Dictionary

labour

la·bour

UK/ˈleɪ.bə/ US/ˈleɪ.bɚ/ fairly common uk
noun (4) verb (3)

noun

1.

a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages

  • “there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field”
Synonyms
2.

concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of labor to the birth of a child

  • “she was in labor for six hours”
Synonyms
3.

a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor''s interests and the socialization of key industries

Synonyms
4.

productive work (especially physical work done for wages)

  • “his labor did not require a great deal of skill”
Synonyms

verb

1.

work hard

  • “She was digging away at her math homework”
  • “Lexicographers drudge all day long”
Synonyms
2.

strive and make an effort to reach a goal

  • “She tugged for years to make a decent living”
  • “We have to push a little to make the deadline!”
  • “She is driving away at her doctoral thesis”
Synonyms
3.

undergo the efforts of childbirth

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English labouren, from Old French laborer, from Latin laborare (“(intransitive) to labor, strive, exert oneself, suffer, be in distress, (transitive) to work out, elaborate”), from labor (“labor, toil, work, exertion”); perhaps remotely akin to robur (“strength”). Displaced native English swink (“toil, labor”).

Phrases

  • aristocracy of labour
  • back labour
  • big labour
  • bonded labour
  • child labour
  • compound labour
  • division of labour
  • emotional labour
  • marmalade labour

Related words

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Broader terms

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Parts

Part of

Related verbs

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.