labour
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈleɪ.bə/
ipa: /ˈleɪ.bɚ/
rhymes: -eɪbə(ɹ)
Forms: form: labours
form: labor
Etymology: From Middle English labor, labour, labur, from Old French labor (modern labeur) and its etymon, Latin labor.
Senses: examples: text: […]So I ſet myſelf to enlarge my Cave and Works farther into the Earth; for it was a looſe ſandy Rock, which yielded eaſily to the Labour I beſtowed on it[…]
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 78:
glosses: Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
examples: text: Being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
ref: 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):
glosses: That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 364–365:
glosses: Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
glosses: A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
topics: medicine
obstetrics
sciences
glosses: The act of a mother giving birth.
glosses: The time period during which a mother gives birth.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
examples: text: the establishment of a new settlement are entitled to five sitios of grazing land, and five labors (equal to 23,025 acres)
ref: 1841, William Kennedy, Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas:
glosses: A traditional unit of area in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to 177.1 acres or 71.67 ha.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: A group of moles.
Synonyms: sense: work
word: swink
sense: work
word: toil
sense: work
word: work
sense: unit of area
word: quarter-section
Coordinate terms: sense: unit of area
word: vara (1/1,000,000 labor)
sense: unit of area
word: sitio
Derived terms: word: anti-labour
word: aristocracy of labour
word: back labour
word: big labour
word: bonded labour
word: child labour
word: compound labour
word: division of labour
word: emotional labour
word: forced labour
word: hard labour
word: in labour
word: laborite
word: labour action
word: labour aristocracy
word: labour camp
word: labour court
word: labouress
word: labour exchange
word: labour force
word: labour-intensive
word: labour law
word: labour lawyer
word: labour market
word: labour of love
word: labourous
word: labour power
word: labour relations
word: labour-saver
word: labour-saving
word: labour share
word: laboursome
word: labour theory of value
word: labour the point
word: labour union
word: labour-value theory
word: labour value theory
word: lip-labour
word: manual labour
word: microlabour
word: micro-labour
word: mislabour
word: mountain in labour
word: nonlabour
word: outlabour
word: overlabour
word: prelabour
word: sexual division of labour
word: Sisyphean labour
word: slave labour
word: socially necessary labour time
word: surplus labour
sense: The act of a mother giving birth
word: labour pain
word: wage labour
Related terms: laborious
laboural