'labour' definitions:
Definition of 'labour'
(from WordNet)
noun
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, labour, working class, proletariat]
noun
Concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child; "she was in labor for six hours" [syn: parturiency, labor, labour, confinement, lying-in, travail, childbed]
noun
A political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries [syn: British Labour Party, Labour Party, Labour, Labor]
noun
Productive work (especially physical work done for wages); "his labor did not require a great deal of skill" [syn: labor, labour, toil]
verb
Work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework"; "Lexicographers drudge all day long" [syn: labor, labour, toil, fag, travail, grind, drudge, dig, moil]
verb
Strive and make an effort to reach a goal; "She tugged for years to make a decent living"; "We have to push a little to make the deadline!"; "She is driving away at her doctoral thesis" [syn: tug, labor, labour, push, drive]
verb
Undergo the efforts of childbirth [syn: labor, labour]
Definition of 'labour'
From: GCIDE
- Labor \La"bor\ (l[=a]"b[~e]r), 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. [1913 Webster]
- God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of compiling a history. [1913 Webster]
- 3. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort. [1913 Webster]
- Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
- 4. Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth. [1913 Webster]
- The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity; and feared She'll with the labor end. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 5. Any pang or distress. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 6. (Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging. [1913 Webster]
- 7. [Sp.] A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to an area of 1771/7 acres. --Bartlett.
- 8. (Mining.) A stope or set of stopes. [Sp. Amer.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
- Syn: Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry; painstaking. See Toll. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'labour'
From: GCIDE
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- 2. To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any design; to strive; to take pains. [1913 Webster]
- 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. [1913 Webster]
- The stone that labors up the hill. --Granville. [1913 Webster]
- The line too labors, and the words move slow. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
- To cure the disorder under which he labored. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
- Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. --Matt. xi. 28 [1913 Webster]
- 4. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor. [1913 Webster]
- 5. (Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea. --Totten. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'labour'
From: GCIDE
- labour \la"bour\, n. Same as labor; -- British spelling. [Chiefly Brit.] [PJC]