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Labour   /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.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Labour" Quotes from Famous Books



... accustomed to receive. They raised him on a shield and acclaimed him as a king; leader and followers both resolving (says Jordanes the Gothic historian) "rather to seek new kingdoms by their own labour, than to slumber in peaceful subjection to the ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... rapidly made clear its fictitious character. Nevertheless, many Democratic journals and orators, notably Abraham S. Hewitt, assuming its genuineness, used it with tremendous force as favouring Chinese competition with home labour. ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander
... his bread by the sweat of his face. Most of us would rather take part in the great strenuous battle of life, than loll about under the trees in the Garden of Eden, chewing the cud like contemplative cows. What men have had to complain of in all ages is, not that they have to earn their living by labour, but that when the sweat of their faces has been plenteously poured forth the "bread" has too often not accrued to them as the reward ...
— Bible Romances - First Series • George W. Foote
... letter alone in my hackney, Your damnable riddle my poor brains did rack nigh. And when with much labour the matter I crack'd, I found you mistaken in matter of fact. A woman's no sieve, (for with that you begin,) Because she lets out more than e'er she takes in. And that she's a riddle can never be right, For a riddle is dark, but a ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... After incredible labour we succeeded, at length, in getting the long-boat 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 ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery - Riddle Stories • Various


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