labour

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See also:Labour

English

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EnglishWikipediahas an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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FromMiddle Englishlabor,labour,labur,fromOld Frenchlabor(modernlabeur) and its etymon,Latinlabor.[1][2]

Noun

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labour(countableanduncountable,plurallabours)(British spelling,Canadian spelling,Australian spelling,New Zealand spelling)

  1. Effort expended on a particulartask;toil,work.
  2. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
    • 1594–1597,Richard Hooker,edited byJ[ohn] S[penser],Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie,[…],London:[…]Will[iam]Stansby[for Matthew Lownes],published1611,→OCLC,(please specify the page):
      Being alabourof so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
  3. (uncountable)Workers in general; the working class, the workforce;sometimes specificallythe labour movement, organised labour.
  4. (uncountable)A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
  5. (medicine,obstetrics)The act of a mother givingbirth.
  6. The time period during which a mother gives birth.
  7. (nautical)The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
  8. (historical)AtraditionalunitofareainMexicoandTexas,equivalentto 177.1acresor 71.67ha.
    • 1841,William Kennedy,Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas:
      the establishment of a new settlement are entitled to five sitios of grazing land, and fivelabors(equal to 23,025 acres)
  9. (uncommon,zoology)A group ofmoles.
Usage notes
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Like many others ending in-our/-or,this word is spelledlabourin the UK andlaborin the U.S. As such,laboris the more common spelling of the unit. In Canada,labouris preferred, butlaboris not unknown. In Australia,labouris the standard spelling, but the Australian Labour Party, founded 1908, "modernised" its spelling toAustralian Labor Partyin 1912 at the suggestion of American-bornKing O'Malley,who was a prominent leader in the ALP.

Synonyms
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Coordinate terms
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Derived terms
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Collocations
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Adjectives often used with "labour"

physical,mental,skilled,technical,organised

Translations
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Etymology 2

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FromMiddle Englishlabouren,fromOld Frenchlaborer,fromLatinlaborare(“(intransitive) to labor, strive, exert oneself, suffer, be in distress, (transitive) to work out, elaborate”),fromlabor(“labor, toil, work, exertion”);perhaps remotely akin torobur(“strength”).Displaced nativeEnglishswink(“toil, labor”).

Verb

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labour(third-person singular simple presentlabours,present participlelabouring,simple past and past participlelaboured)(British spelling,Canadian spelling,Australian spelling,New Zealand spelling)

  1. (intransitive)Totoil,towork.
    • 1939September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, inRailway Magazine,page165:
      Standing on the mountain above Caerphilly, one may reflect upon the gap where once stood Llanbradach Viaduct, and look near at hand upon the restored ruins of Caerphilly Castle; manlaboursto rebuild the mediaeval whilst he ruthlessly scraps the modern.
    • 1961May, “Beattock Interlude”, inTrains Illustrated,page 287, photo caption:
      "Crab"2-6-0No 42802laboursup to Beattock Summit with a northbound freight from Carlisle in August 1960.
  2. (transitive)Tobelabour,to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).
    I think we've all got the idea. There's no need tolabourthe point.
    • 1920,Edward Carpenter,Pagan and Christian Creeds,New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published1921,page36:
      It is needless tolabora point which is so well known. Everyone understands and appreciates the joy of finding that the long darkness is giving way, that the Sun is growing in strength, and that the days are winning a victory over the nights.
  3. To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard or wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden.
  4. To suffer the pangs ofchildbirth.
  5. (nautical)Topitchorrollheavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
    • 1808,William Gilpin,Memoirs of Josias Rogers, Esq:
      the shiplabouredso much, and took in so much water in her upper works, that we could neither eat, nor sleep dry
Derived terms
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Translations
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References

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  1. ^“labour | labor,n.”,inOED OnlinePaid subscription required⁠,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,launched 2000.
  2. ^“lā̆bǒur,n.”,inMED Online,Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.

Further reading

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Breton

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Noun

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labour

  1. work,job

French

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Etymology

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Deverbalfromlabourer.See alsolabeur.

Noun

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labourm(plurallabours)

  1. cultivation
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Further reading

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Old French

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Noun

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labouroblique singular,m(oblique plurallabours,nominative singularlabours,nominative plurallabour)

  1. (lateAnglo-Norman)Alternative spelling oflabur
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