labour

 
Pronunciation: /ˈleɪbə/
(US labor)

noun

[mass noun]
  • 1work, especially physical work: the price of repairs includes labour, parts, and VAT manual labour
  • workers, especially manual workers, considered collectively: non-union casual labour
  • workers considered as a social class or political force: [as modifier]: the labour movement
  • [as modifier] (Labour) a government department concerned with a nation’s workforce: the Labour Secretary
  • 2 (Labour) [treated as singular or plural] the Labour Party: [as modifier]: the Labour leader
  • 3the process of childbirth from the start of uterine contractions to delivery: a woman in labour

verb

[no object]
  • 1work hard; make great effort: they laboured from dawn to dusk she was patiently labouring over her sketchbooks
  • work at an unskilled manual occupation: he was eking out an existence by labouring (as adjective labouring) the labouring classes
  • [with object] archaic till (the ground): the land belonged to him who laboured it
  • 2have difficulty in doing something despite working hard: United laboured against confident opponents
  • [with adverbial of direction] move or proceed with difficulty: they laboured up a steep, tortuous track
  • (of an engine) work noisily and with difficulty: the wheels churned, the engine labouring
  • (of a ship) roll or pitch heavily: (as adjective labouring) occasionally the labouring ship spat the caulking from some underwater seam

Phrases

a labour of Hercules

see Hercules.

a labour of love

a task done for pleasure, not reward: he spent eight years rebuilding the house—a labour of love

labour the point

explain or discuss something at excessive length.

Phrasal Verbs

labour under

  • 1carry (a very heavy load) with difficulty: two servants appeared, labouring under the weight of a kitchen table
  • 2be misled by (a mistaken belief): you’ve been labouring under a misapprehension

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French labour (noun), labourer (verb), both from Latin labor 'toil, trouble'

Spelling help

Remember that labour ends with -our (the spelling labor is American).