labor
English meaning: Labor
Definition
Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
Example
“Building the wall by hand was hard physical labor.”
Another example: “After twelve hours of labor, she gave birth to a healthy boy.”
Usage — When, Where & How
A noun for hard work or effort, the workforce, the process of childbirth, or (capitalized in the UK) the Labour political party. Note the US spelling 'labor'; UK uses 'labour'. Common in economics ('labor market'), medicine ('go into labor') and politics.
Etymology & Origin
English — Origin & History
From Old French 'labour', from Latin 'labor' (toil, exertion, distress); in English from the 14th century.
Synonyms
Antonyms / Opposites
- rest
- leisure
- ease
- idleness
Related Words
- alp
- greens
- bargaining
- wage
- wages
- trafficking
- productivity
- disputes
- employment
- unemployment
Common Collocations
- manual labor
- labor market
- labor force
- cheap labor
- go into labor
- labor of love
Word Forms
labor (n & v); labors; labored; laboring; laborer (n); laborious (adj)
Word Tools
Literary Heritage
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
/To thine own self be true/
“Be honest with yourself — and as naturally as night follows day, you will be unable to be false to others.”
“I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?”
/I'm nobody! Who are you?/
“I am nobody — and that quiet anonymity is more honest than the noise of public fame.”
Images
CC-licensed · free to useVideo
Language information
- Language
- English
- English
- Script
- Latin
- Family
- Indo-European
- Speakers
- 1.5B