Labour

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Labor \La"bor\ (l[=a]"b[~e]r), n. [OE. labour, OF. labour,
     laber, labur, F. labeur, L. labor; cf. Gr. lamba`nein to
     take, Skr. labh to get, seize.] [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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              God hath set
              Labor and rest, as day and night, to men
              Successive.                           --Milton.
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     2. Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of
        compiling a history.
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     3. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that
        which demands effort.
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              Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact
              performance thereof we may rather wish than look
              for.                                  --Hooker.
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     4. Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth.
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              The queen's in labor,
              They say, in great extremity; and feared
              She'll with the labor end.            --Shak.
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     5. Any pang or distress. --Shak.
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     6. (Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results
        in the straining of timbers and rigging.
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     7. [Sp.] A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to
        an area of 1771/7 acres. --Bartlett.
  
     8. (Mining.) A stope or set of stopes. [Sp. Amer.]
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     Syn: Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry;
          painstaking. See {Toll}.
          [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Labor \La"bor\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Labored}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Laboring}.] [OE. labouren, F. labourer, L. laborare. See
     {Labor}, n.] [Written also {labour}.]
     1. To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with
        painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to
        work; to toil.
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              Adam, well may we labor still to dress
              This garden.                          --Milton.
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     2. To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any
        design; to strive; to take pains.
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     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.
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              The stone that labors up the hill.    --Granville.
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              The line too labors, and the words move slow.
                                                    --Pope.
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              To cure the disorder under which he labored. --Sir
                                                    W. Scott.
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              Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
              and I will give you rest.             --Matt. xi. 28
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     4. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be
        in labor.
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     5. (Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent
        sea. --Totten.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  labour \la"bour\, n.
     Same as {labor}; -- British spelling. [Chiefly Brit.]
     [PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  labour
       n 1: a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work
            for wages; "there is a shortage of skilled labor in this
            field" [syn: {labor}, {working class}, {proletariat}]
       2: concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of labor to
          the birth of a child; "she was in labor for six hours"
          [syn: {parturiency}, {labor}, {confinement}, {lying-in}, {travail},
           {childbed}]
       3: a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900;
          characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and
          the socialization of key industries [syn: {Labour Party},
          {Labor Party}, {Labor}]
       4: productive work (especially physical work done for wages);
          "his labor did not require a great deal of skill" [syn: {labor},
           {toil}]
       v 1: work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework";
            "Lexicographers drudge all day long" [syn: {labor}, {toil},
             {fag}, {travail}, {grind}, {drudge}, {dig}, {moil}]
       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" [syn: {tug}, {labor}, {push}, {drive}]
       3: undergo the efforts of childbirth [syn: {labor}]