3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Labor \La"bor\, 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
God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to
men Successive. --Milton.
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 --Hooker.
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 --Shak.
5. Any pang or distress. --Shak.
6. (Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results
in the straining of timbers and rigging.
7. [Sp.] A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to
an area of 1771/7 acres. --Bartlett.
Syn: Work toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry;
painstaking. See {Toll}.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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.
Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden.
--Milton.
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. --Granville.
The line too labors,and the words move slow. --Pope.
To cure the disorder under which he labored. --Sir
W. Scott.
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. --Matt. xi 28
4. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth.
5. (Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent
sea. -- Totten.
From WordNet r 1.6 [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},
{Labour}, {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" [syn:
{labor}, {toil}, {fag}, {travail}, {grind}, {drudge}, {dig},
{moil}]
2: exert oneself; "She tugged for years to make a decent
living" [syn: {tug}, {labor}, {push}, {drive}]
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