labour
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See also: Labour
Contents
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈleɪ.bə/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈleɪ.bɚ/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -eɪbə(ɹ)
Noun[edit]
labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours) (British, Canadian, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)
- Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- […] so I set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowed on it […]
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
- (Can we date this quote?) Richard Hooker
- Being a labour of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
- (Can we date this quote?) Richard Hooker
- (uncountable) Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
- 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.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)
Usage notes[edit]
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, 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.
- Adjectives often used with "labour": physical, mental, technical, organised.
Synonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
- labour-intensive
- (The act of a mother giving birth): labour pain
Translations[edit]
work
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hard work
workers
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political party
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giving birth
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Verb[edit]
labour (third-person singular simple present labours, present participle labouring, simple past and past participle laboured) (British, Canadian, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)
- (intransitive) To toil, to work.
- (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.
- 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.
- (Can we date this quote?) Granville
- the stone that labours up the hill
- (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
- The line too labours, and the words move slow.
- (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott
- to cure the disorder under which he laboured
- (Can we date this quote?) Granville
- To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
- (nautical) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to work
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to suffer the pangs of childbirth
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Further reading[edit]
- labour in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- labour in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- labour at OneLook Dictionary Search
- "labour" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 176.
Breton[edit]
Noun[edit]
labour
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Deverbal of labourer. See also labeur.
Noun[edit]
labour m (plural labours)
Related terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “labour” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Old French[edit]
Noun[edit]
labour m (oblique plural labours, nominative singular labours, nominative plural labour)
- (late Anglo-Norman) Alternative spelling of labur
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- British English forms
- Canadian English forms
- en:Nautical
- Requests for quotation/Bartlett
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- Requests for quotation/Totten
- Breton lemmas
- Breton nouns
- French deverbals
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French masculine nouns
- French countable nouns
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French masculine nouns
- Anglo-Norman Old French
