labour - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English labor, labour, labur, from Old French labor (modern labeur) and its etymon, Latin labor.[1][2]

labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours) (Commonwealth spelling)

  1. An effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
  2. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
    • [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):
      Being a labour of 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 specifically the 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 or process of a mother giving birth.
    Coordinate term: delivery (the moment of emergence)
    Near-synonyms: childbirth, parturition
    • 2017 March 7, Stephen Maguire, “Hero Irish dad reveals he had to tell car valet he ‘wasn’t up to anything illegal’ after wife gave birth on back seat on Donegal road”, in The Irish Sun‎[1], archived from the original on 6 December 2021:
      Paul Doherty came to the rescue when his wife Georgina went into labour early just minutes from their local hospital.
  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) A traditional unit of area in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to 177.1 acres or 71.67 ha.
    • 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 five labors (equal to 23,025 acres)
  9. (uncommon, zoology) A group of moles.

work

hard work

workers

giving birth

From Middle English labouren, from Old French laborer, from Latin laborare (“(intransitive) to labor, strive, exert oneself, suffer, be in distress, (transitive) to work out, elaborate”), from labor (“labor, toil, work, exertion”); perhaps remotely akin to robur (“strength”). Displaced native English swink (“toil, labor”).

labour (third-person singular simple present labours, present participle labouring, simple past and past participle laboured) (British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)

  1. (intransitive) To toil, to work.
    Synonym: grind
    • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 165:
      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; man labours to rebuild the mediaeval whilst he ruthlessly scraps the modern.
    • 1961 May, “Beattock Interlude”, in Trains Illustrated, page 287, photo caption:
      "Crab" 2-6-0 No 42802 labours up to Beattock Summit with a northbound freight from Carlisle in August 1960.
  2. (transitive) To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).
    I think we've all got the idea. There's no need to labour the point.
    • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 36:
      It is needless to labor a 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.
    • 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
      The line too labours, and the words move slow.
  4. To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
  5. (nautical) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
    • 1808, William Gilpin, Memoirs of Josias Rogers, Esq:
      the ship laboured so much, and took in so much water in her upper works, that we could neither eat, nor sleep dry

to work

to suffer the pangs of childbirth

  1. ^ “labour | labor, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ “lā̆bǒur, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

labour

  1. work, job

Deverbal from labourer. See also labeur.

labour m (plural labours)

  1. cultivation, ploughing
    • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎[2], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères:
      Mais, comme il ne s'entendait guère plus en culture qu'en indiennes, qu'il montait ses chevaux au lieu de les envoyer au labour, buvait son cidre en bouteilles au lieu de le vendre en barriques, mangeait les plus belles volailles de sa cour et graissait ses souliers de chasse avec le lard de ses cochons, il ne tarda point à s'apercevoir qu'il valait mieux planter là toute spéculation.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

labour oblique singular, m (oblique plural labours, nominative singular labours, nominative plural **labour)

  1. (late Anglo-Norman) alternative spelling of labur