Definitions for labour
ˈleɪ bərlabour

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. labor, labour, working class, proletariatnoun

   a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages

   "there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field"

2. parturiency, labor, labour, confinement, lying-in, travail, childbednoun

   concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child

   "she was in labor for six hours"

3. British Labour Party, Labour Party, Labour, Labornoun

   a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries

4. labor, labour, toilverb

   productive work (especially physical work done for wages)

   "his labor did not require a great deal of skill"

5. labor, labour, toil, fag, travail, grind, drudge, dig, moilverb

   work hard

   "She was digging away at her math homework"; "Lexicographers drudge all day long"

6. tug, labor, labour, push, driveverb

   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"

7. labor, labourverb

   undergo the efforts of childbirth

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. labournoun

   Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.

2. labournoun

   Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.

3. labournoun

   A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.

4. labournoun

   The act of a mother giving birth

5. labournoun

   The time period during which a mother gives birth.

6. labourverb

   To toil, to work.

7. labourverb

   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.

8. Labournoun

   Short for the Labour Party.

9. Etymology: From labouren, from laborer, from laborare, from labor; perhaps remotely akin to robur.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. LABOURnoun

   Etymology: labeur, French; labor, Latin.

   1. The act of doing what requires a painful exertion of strength, or wearisome perseverance; pains; toil; travail; work.

   If I find her honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, it is labour well bestowed. William Shakespeare, M. W. of Windsor.

   I sent to know your faith, lest the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain. 1 Thes. iii. 5.

   2. Work to be done.

   Being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for. Richard Hooker.

   You were wont to say,
   If you had been the wife of Hercules
   Six of his labours you’d have done, and sav’d
   Your husband so much sweat. William Shakespeare, Coriolanus.

   3. Exercise; motion with some degree of violence.

   Moderate labour of the body conduces to the preservation of health, and curing many initial diseases; but the toil of the mind destroys health, and generates maladies. Gideon Harvey.

   4. Childbirth; travail.

   Sith of womens labours thou hast charge,
   And generation goodly doest enlarge,
   Incline thy will to effect our wishful vow. Edmund Spenser, Epith.

   Not knowing ’twas my labour, I complain
   Of sudden shootings, and of grinding pain;
   My throws come thicker, and my cries encreas’d,
   Which with her hand the conscious nurse suppress’d. Dryd.

   Not one woman of two hundred dies in labour. John Graunt.

   His heart is in continual labour; it even travails with the obligation, and is in pangs ’till it be delivered. Robert South, Serm.

2. To Labourverb

   1. To work at; to move with difficulty; to form with labour; to prosecute with effect.

   To use brevity, and avoid much labouring of the work, is to be granted to him that will make an abridgment. 2 Mac.

   The matter of the ceremonies had wrought, for the most part, only upon light-headed, weak men, whose satisfaction was not to be laboured for. Edward Hyde.

   The pains of famish’d Tantalus shall feel,
   And Sisyphus that labours up the hill,
   The rowling rock in vain, and curst Ixion’s wheel. Dryd.

   Had you requir’d my helpful hand,
   Th’ artificer and art you might command,
   To labour arms for Troy. John Dryden, Æneis.

   An eager desire to know something concerning him, has occasioned mankind to labour the point under these disadvantages, and turn on all hands to see if there were any thing left which might have the least appearance of information. Alexander Pope, Essay on Homer.

   2. To beat; to belabour.

   Take, shepherd, take a plant of stubborn oak,
   And labour him with many a sturdy stroak. John Dryden, Virg.

3. To Labourverb

   Etymology: laboro, Latin.

   1. To toil; to act with painful effort.

   When shall I come to th’ top of that same hill?
   —— You do climb up it now; look how we labour. William Shakespeare.

   For your highness’ good I ever labour’d,
   More than mine own. William Shakespeare, Hen. VIII.

   Who is with him?
   —— None but the fool, who labours to out-jest
   His heart-struck injuries. William Shakespeare, K. Lear.

   Let more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein. Exod. v. 9.

   2. To do work; to take pains.

   Epaphras saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect. Col. iv. 12.

   A labouring man that is given to drunkenness shall not be rich. Ecclus. xix. 1.

   That in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day. Neh. iv. 22.

   Yet is there no end of all his labours; neither saith he, for whom do I labour. Eccl. iv. 8.

   As a man had a right to all he could employ his labour upon, so he had no temptation to labour for more than he could make use of. John Locke.

   3. To move with difficulty.

   The stone that labours up the hill,
   Mocking the labourer’s toil, returning still,
   Is love. George Granville.

   4. To be diseased with. [ Morbo laborare, Latin.]

   They abound with horse,
   Of which one want our camp doth only labour,
   And I have found ’em coming. Ben Jonson, Catiline.

   I was called to another, who in childbed laboured of an ulcer in her left hip. Richard Wiseman.

   5. To be in distress; to be pressed.

   To this infernal lake the fury flies,
   Here hides her hated head, and frees the lab’ring skies. Dryd.

   Trumpets and drums shall fright her from the Throne,
   As sounding cymbals aid the lab’ring moon. John Dryden, Aur.

   This exercise will call down the favour of heaven upon you, to remove those afflictions you now labour under from you. William Wake, Preparation for Death.

   6. To be in child-birth; to be in travail.

   There lay a log unlighted on the earth,
   When she was lab’ring in the throws of birth;
   For th’ unborn chief the fatal sisters came,
   And rais’d it up, and toss’d it on the flame. John Dryden, Ovid.

   Here, like some furious prophet, Pindar rode,
   And seem’d to labour with th’ inspiring God. Alexander Pope.

   He is so touch’d with the memory of her benevolence and protection, that his soul labours for an expression enough to represent it. Notes on the Odyssey.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. labour

   Labour refers to the human effort, either physical or mental, that is applied in the production of goods and services within an economy. This can include work performed by employees, self-employed persons, entrepreneurs, as well as unpaid workers such as volunteers or interns. The term can also refer to the total amount of such work available or needed within a specific industry or economic system.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Labour

   lā′bur, n. toil or exertion, esp. when fatiguing: work: pains: duties: a task requiring hard work: the pangs of childbirth.—v.i. to undergo labour: to work: to take pains: to be oppressed: to move slowly: to be in travail: (naut.) to pitch and roll heavily.—adj. Labō′rious, full of labour: toilsome: wearisome: devoted to labour: industrious.—adv. Labō′riously.—n. Labō′riousness.—adj. Lā′boured, bearing marks of labour or effort in the execution.—ns. Lā′bourer, one who labours: one who does work requiring little skill; Lā′bourist, one who contends for the interests of workmen.—adjs. Lā′bour-sav′ing, intended to supersede or lessen the labour of men; Lā′boursome (Shak.), made with labour and diligence.—Labour Day, a legal holiday in some parts of the United States, as in New York (the first Monday in September); Labour market, the supply of unemployed labour in relation to the demand for it; Labour of love, work undertaken merely as an act of friendliness, and without hope of emolument; Labour with, to take pains to convince.—Hard labour, compulsory work imposed on certain criminals in addition to imprisonment. [O. Fr. labour, labeur—L. labor.]

Dictionary of Nautical TermsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. labour

   In the relative mechanical efforts of the human body labouring in various posture, 682-1/3 have been given for the rowing effort, 476 for the effort at a winch, and 209-1/3 for the effort at a pump.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. labour

   Song lyrics by labour -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by labour on the Lyrics.com website.

2. Labour

   Labour vs. Labor -- In this Grammar.com article you will learn the differences between the words Labour and Labor.

3. Labour

   Labor vs. Labour -- In this Grammar.com article you will learn the differences between the words Labor and Labour.

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. LABOUR

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Labour is ranked #136449 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Labour surname appeared 123 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Labour.
   
   70.7% or 87 total occurrences were White.
   28.4% or 35 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.

Matched Categories

1. • Class
   • Labor Party
   • Undergo

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'labour' in Nouns Frequency: #300

2. Adjectives Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'labour' in Adjectives Frequency: #86

How to pronounce labour?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say labour in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of labour in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of labour in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of labour in a Sentence

1. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron:

   Make no mistake, if Labour and the SNP get into power, you are going to see an alliance between a party that wants to spend, borrow and tax more, with a party that wants to spend, borrow and tax even more, it might be a match made in heaven for them, but it is a match made in hell for the British economy.

2. Ailsa Henderson:

   I don't think Labour are going to lure away any voters who have gone to the pro-independence SNP by being silent on the issue of the constitution.

3. Donald Walker:

   If you have a high labour, easy-to-ship part, it has already gone, for the most part, to a low-cost jurisdiction, a bigger issue is how fast do you have intelligent robotics replace manual labour everywhere in the world.

4. Rebecca Long-Bailey:

   Put simply, today's Taylor Report shows that Theresa May is failing working people across the country, if they were serious about workers' rights they are welcome to borrow from Labour's manifesto.

5. Jordan Rochester:

   It's short-term gain, long-term pain if the Conservatives win, for Labour, it's short-term pain, potential long-term gain.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=labour
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Labour
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=labour
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=labour
6. ^ Dictionary of Nautical Terms
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26000/pg26000-images.html#:~:text=labour
7. ^ Surnames Frequency by Census Records
   https://www.census.gov/topics/population/genealogy/data/2010_surnames.html