labour

See also: Labour

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈleɪ.bə/
    • Audio (UK)(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈleɪ.bɚ/
    • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪbə(ɹ)

Noun

labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours) (British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)

  1. Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
  2. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
    • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →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 of a mother giving birth.
  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.

Usage notes

Like many others ending in -our/-or, this word is spelled labour in the UK and labor in the U.S. As such, labor is the more common spelling of the unit. In Canada, labour is preferred, but labor is not unknown. In Australia, labour is the standard spelling, but the Australian Labour Party, founded 1908, "modernised" its spelling to Australian Labor Party in 1912 at the suggestion of American-born King O'Malley, who was a prominent leader in the ALP.

Synonyms

Coordinate terms
  • (unit of area): vara (1/1,000,000 labor), sitio

Derived terms

Collocations
Adjectives often used with "labour"

physical, mental, skilled, technical, organised

Translations

Verb

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.
    • 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.
  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

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

Breton

Noun

labour

  1. work, job

French

Etymology

Deverbal from labourer. See also labeur.

Noun

labour m (plural labours)

  1. cultivation

Further reading

Old French

Noun

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

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