labour - What does it mean?
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Definition of 'labour'English
Alternative forms
* labor (US)
Noun
(UK|Australia|New Zealand|Canada)
Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
* 1719, (Daniel Defoe), (Robinson Crusoe)
-
That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
* (Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)
- Being a labour of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
(uncountable) Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
*|chapter=22
|title= The Mirror and the Lamp
|passage=In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.}}
(uncountable) A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
The act of a mother giving birth.
The time period during which a mother gives birth.
(nautical) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
An old measure of land area in Mexico and Texas, approximately 177 acres.
- (Bartlett)
Usage notes
Like many other words ending in -our''/''-or'', this word is spelled ''labour'' in the UK and ''labor'' in the U.S.; in Canada, ''labour'' is preferred, but ''labor'' is not unknown. In Australia, where ''labour'' is the usual spelling, ''labor'' is nonetheless used in the name of the , reflecting the fact that the ''-or endings had some currency in Australia in the past.
* Adjectives often used with "labour": physical, mental, technical, organised.
Synonyms
*
Derived terms
* (The act of a mother giving birth) labour pain
Verb
( en-verb) (UK|Australia|New Zealand|Canada)
To toil, to work.
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.
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.
* Granville
- the stone that labours up the hill
* Alexander Pope
- The line too labours , and the words move slow.
* Sir Walter Scott
- to cure the disorder under which he laboured
To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
(nautical) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
- (Totten)
Related terms
* laboratory
* laborious
* labourer
* labourite
* labour-saving
External links
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Similar to 'labour'liver, lever, labor, liber, lover, levir, lepper, levier, lobar, lobber, looper, lopper, louver, lubber, leper, loafer, leaver, leaper, lifer, libber, layover, laver, liever, loper, livor, lapper, leafier, loopier, liefer, lippier, laffer, lovyer, luffer, laveer, loover, luvar, louvar, lobbier
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