labour

English Online Dictionary. What means labour‎? What does labour mean?

English

Alternative forms

• labor (US)

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

From Middle English labor, labour, labur, from Old French labor (modern labeur) and its etymon, Latin labor.

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.
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.
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 in 1908, "modernized" 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

• (work): swink, toil, work
• (unit of area): quarter-section

Coordinate terms

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• laborious
• laboural

Collocations

Translations

Etymology 2

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”).

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.
2. (transitive) To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).
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.

Derived terms

• labourer
• labourism
• labourist
• labourite
• labour-saving
• marmalade labour

Related terms

• laboratory

Translations

References

Further reading

• “labor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “labour”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “labour”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• "labour" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 176.

Breton

Noun

labour

1. work, job

French

Etymology

Deverbal of labourer. See also labeur.

Noun

labour m (plural labours)

1. cultivation

Related terms

• labourable
• labourage
• labourer

Further reading

• “labour”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Noun

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

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