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labor |
6 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. t. [F. labourer, L. laborare.] 1. To work at to work to till; to cultivate by toil. The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only labored by children. --W. Tooke. 2. To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care ``To labor arms for Troy.'' --Dryden. 3. To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge stre?uously; as to labor a point or argument. 4. To belabor; to beat [Obs.] --Dryden. 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 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Labor \La"bor\, n. (Mining.) A store or set of stopes. [Sp. Amer.] From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: labor 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: {labour}, {working class}, {proletariat}] 2: productive work (especially physical work done for wages); "his labor did not require a great deal of skill" [syn: {labour}, {toil}] 3: concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of labor to the birth of a child; "she was in labor for six hours" [syn: {parturiency}, {labour}, {confinement}, {lying-in}, {travail}, {childbed}] 4: an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action especially via labor unions (especially the leaders of this movement) [syn: {labor movement}, {trade union movement}] 5: 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}] 6: the federal department responsible for promoting the working conditions of wage earners; created in 1913 [syn: {Department of Labor}, {Labor Department}, {Labor}] 7: any piece of work [syn: {undertaking}, {project}, {task}] v 1: exert oneself; "She tugged for years to make a decent living" [syn: {tug}, {labour}, {push}, {drive}] 2: work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework" [syn: {labour}, {toil}, {fag}, {travail}, {grind}, {drudge}, {dig}, {moil}] From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.
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