I. ˈlābə(r) noun
( -s )
Usage: see -or
Etymology: Middle English labour, labor, from Old French, from Latin labor drudgery, hardship, work; probably akin to Latin labi to slip, slide — more at sleep
1.
a. : toil , work :
(1) : expenditure of physical or mental effort especially when fatiguing, difficult, or compulsory
with labor I excavated a pit — W.H.Hudson †1922
with enormous labors he made himself into a popular writer — Carl van Doren
sentenced to six months at hard labor
(2) : human activity that produces the goods or provides the services in demand in an economy : the services performed by workers for wages as distinguished from those rendered by entrepreneurs for profits
each entrepreneur is eager to buy all the kinds of specific labor he needs — Ludwig Von Mises
b.
(1) : the physical activities involved in parturition consisting essentially of a prolonged series of involuntary contractions of the uterine musculature together with both reflex and voluntary contractions of the abdominal wall
drugs that induce labor
the record of her previous pregnancies and labors
went into labor after a fall
(2) : the period of time during which such labor takes place
a 12-hour labor
c. : heavy pitching and rolling of a ship under way
2. : an act or process requiring labor : task
translation is a labor that must be done afresh for each succeeding age — J.C.Swaim
3. : a product of labor
muddy waters had swept inland … submerging in one implacable tide the labor of years — William Beebe
inspecting his completed labors with a critical eye
4.
a. : an economic group comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
the native labor is a floating population — Geographical Journal
: workingmen as an economic or political force
labor has the right to assemble, to bargain collectively, and to strike — Curtis Bok
win the vote of labor in the coming elections
b. : workers employed in an establishment or available for employment : hired help
the injection of ourselves and all our labor against bubonic plague — Think
: manpower
a plentiful supply of cheap labor from across the border
c. : the organizations or officials (as unions or union leadership) representing groups of workers : organized labor
those in labor who advocate profit sharing by employees
a conference between labor and management
5. usually labour usually capitalized
a. : the Labour party of the United Kingdom
when Labour is in a position to form a government, the sovereign … calls the leader as prime minister — R.T.McKenzie
b. : the Labour party in another nation of the British Commonwealth (as Australia or New Zealand)
Labour won its first signal political triumph in the New South Wales elections — Alexander Brady
Synonyms: see work
II. verb
( labored ; labored ; laboring -b(ə)riŋ ; labors )
Usage: see -or
Etymology: Middle English labouren, laboren, from Middle French labourer, from Old French laborer, labourer, from Latin laborare to suffer, toil, work, from labor, n.
intransitive verb
1. : to exert one's powers of body or mind especially with painful or strenuous effort : to perform labor : work , strive
labored to pull their wagons along the slushy road — F.V.W.Mason
when a writer labors long over a single passage
began to labor on the creation of a treaty system — D.J.Dallin
labored as a miner
labors for the restoration of normal conditions
2. : to move with great effort (as against opposition or under a burden)
the boat labored upriver — Sherwood Anderson
the ponderous woman labored puffingly up one flight of stairs — J.B.Benefield
I had labored through the Prometheus with a Greek dictionary — H.J.Laski
3. : to be in or enter into labor in the bearing of a child or young
4. : to suffer from some disadvantage or distress — usually used with under
labored under the handicap of arthritis
labor under a delusion
5. of a ship : to pitch or roll heavily
labored heavily in a chopping sea — J.L.Motley
transitive verb
1. dialect Britain : till , cultivate
the cultivated area … is labored by some 65,000 farmers — J.M.Mogey
2. : burden , tire , distress
the details … are endless and I won't labor you with them — Horace Sutton
: make laborious
anxiety … troubled and labored her mature work — Sara H. Hay
3. archaic
a. : to spend labor on or produce by labor
anvils labored by the Cyclops' hands — John Dryden
b. : to strive to effect or achieve : work for
earnestly … labored that reunion — Edmund Burke
4. : to treat or work out in often laborious detail : develop fully : elaborate
no need to labor the obvious — Bernard DeVoto
5. obsolete : to use one's influence or favor with or for : urge
the Devil … labors all he can to bring them into the same pit — Robert Burton
6. : to cause to labor
poets laboring their wits on tasks like these — Gilbert Highet
7. obsolete : beat , pound , rub
take the white of an egg and labor the same — Book of St. Albans
the ass … if he be labored with a cudgel — Richard Carew
8. obsolete : to bring by labor or endeavor to a specified position or state
labored him out of his house — Robert Crowley
III. adjective
Usage: see -or
Etymology: labor (I)
1.
a. : of or relating to labor
labor costs
an ample labor supply
labor legislation
b. : of, representing the views or interests of, or dominated by organized labor
labor political activity
editorials in the labor press
a labor leader
districts that are traditionally liberal and labor — New Republic
c. : affecting labor and management
a labor contract
2. usually capitalized : of, relating to, or constituted by a political party that claims to represent the interests of working men and women or that is characterized by a membership in which organized labor groups predominate: as
a. : of, relating to, or constituted by one of several minor political parties usually having a brief period of activity in the United States during the late 19th and 20th centuries — usually used in combination
the Farmer- Labor party of Minnesota
the American Labor party in New York state … constituted an important political bloc — H.S.Gilbertson
b. usually labour
(1) : of, relating to, or constituted by a major political party of the United Kingdom in the 20th century associated with socialistic policies (as the nationalization of basic industries) and characterized by an organization in which trade unions are predominant
election of a Labour candidate to the London County Council
a Labour majority in the House of Commons
(2) : of, relating to, or constituted by a political party in another nation of the British Commonwealth that is usually similar in membership to the Labour party of the United Kingdom
the power of the Labour caucus in Australia
New Zealand's first Labour government
IV. ləˈbō(ə)r, -bȯ(ə)r noun
( -s )
Etymology: Mexican Spanish, from Spanish, farming, tilling, work, from Latin, work
: an old Texas unit of land area equal to about 177 acres