Library / English Dictionary

LABOUR

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Productive work (especially physical work done for wages)

Example:

his labor did not require a great deal of skill

Synonyms:

labor; labour; toil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("labour" is a kind of...):

work (activity directed toward making or doing something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "labour"):

roping (capturing cattle or horses with a lasso)

corvee (unpaid labor (as for the maintenance of roads) required by a lord of his vassals in lieu of taxes)

donkeywork; drudgery; grind; plodding (hard monotonous routine work)

effort; elbow grease; exertion; sweat; travail (use of physical or mental energy; hard work)

hunt; hunting (the work of finding and killing or capturing animals for food or pelts)

hackwork (professional work done according to formula)

haymaking (cutting grass and curing it to make hay)

manual labor; manual labour (labor done with the hands)

overwork; overworking (the act of working too much or too long)

slavery (work done under harsh conditions for little or no pay)

Derivation:

labour (strive and make an effort to reach a goal)

labour (work hard)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Example:

there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field

Synonyms:

labor; labour; proletariat; working class

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("labour" is a kind of...):

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

Meronyms (members of "labour"):

prole; proletarian; worker (a member of the working class (not necessarily employed))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "labour"):

labor force; labor pool (the source of trained people from which workers can be hired)

lumpenproletariat ((Marxism) the unorganized lower levels of the proletariat who are not interested in revolutionary advancement)

organized labor (employees who are represented by a labor union)

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

British Labour Party; Labor; Labour; Labour Party

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("Labour" is a kind of...):

labor party; labour party (a left-of-center political party formed to represent the interest of ordinary working people)

Meronyms (members of "Labour"):

Labourite (a member of the British Labour Party)

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Example:

she was in labor for six hours

Synonyms:

childbed; confinement; labor; labour; lying-in; parturiency; travail

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("labour" is a kind of...):

birth; birthing; giving birth; parturition (the process of giving birth)

Meronyms (parts of "labour"):

uterine contraction (a rhythmic tightening in labor of the upper uterine musculature that contracts the size of the uterus and pushes the fetus toward the birth canal)

effacement (shortening of the uterine cervix and thinning of its walls as it is dilated during labor)

asynclitism; obliquity (the presentation during labor of the head of the fetus at an abnormal angle)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "labour"):

premature labor; premature labour (labor beginning prior to the 37th week of gestation)

Holonyms ("labour" is a part of...):

gestation; maternity; pregnancy (the state of being pregnant; the period from conception to birth when a woman carries a developing fetus in her uterus)

Derivation:

labour (undergo the efforts of childbirth)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Undergo the efforts of childbirth

Synonyms:

labor; labour

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Hypernyms (to "labour" is one way to...):

undergo (pass through)

"Labour" entails doing...:

bear; birth; deliver; give birth; have (cause to be born)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strive and make an effort to reach a goal

Example:

She is driving away at her doctoral thesis

Synonyms:

drive; labor; labour; push; tug

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "labour" is one way to...):

fight; struggle (make a strenuous or labored effort)

Verb group:

bear on; push (press, drive, or impel (someone) to action or completion of an action)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "labour"):

reach; strain; strive (to exert much effort or energy)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Derivation:

labour (productive work (especially physical work done for wages))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Work hard

Example:

Lexicographers drudge all day long

Synonyms:

dig; drudge; fag; grind; labor; labour; moil; toil; travail

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "labour" is one way to...):

do work; work (be employed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

labour (productive work (especially physical work done for wages))

labourer (someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Well, sir, the time must come when you will be paid for all this, when you will have little labour and great enjoyment.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I heard the rasping, laboured breathing of the sick man.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You are labouring under a slight error, sir, if you will permit me to say so.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Similar to International Labour Office (ILO) classification 4.

(Non-diagnostic Quality, NCI Thesaurus)

Similar to International Labour Office (ILO) classification 3.

(Limited Quality, NCI Thesaurus)

Dr Mujcic said he used data from the annual Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) Survey to answer the age-old questions – are fruit and vegetables good for us?

(Fruit and veggies pave the road to happiness, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Similar to International Labour Office (ILO) classification 1.

(Exemplary Quality, NCI Thesaurus)

With much labour we separated them and carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Besides, that would be all recreation and indulgence, without the wholesome alloy of labour, and I do not like to eat the bread of idleness.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Catherine could have raved at the hand which had swept away what must have been beyond the value of all the rest, for the purposes of mere domestic economy; and would willingly have been spared the mortification of a walk through scenes so fallen, had the general allowed it; but if he had a vanity, it was in the arrangement of his offices; and as he was convinced that, to a mind like Miss Morland's, a view of the accommodations and comforts, by which the labours of her inferiors were softened, must always be gratifying, he should make no apology for leading her on.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)