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labor - Meaning and Examples

Meaning of 'labor' (Webster Dictionary)

1 . Labor [ n.]
- Physical toil or bodily exertion, especially when fatiguing, irksome, or unavoidable, in distinction from sportive exercise; hard, muscular effort directed to some useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, and like; servile toil; exertion; work.
- Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of compiling a history.
- That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
- Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth.
- Any pang or distress.
- The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
- A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to an area of 177/ acres.
- To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to work; to toil.
- To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any design; to strive; to take pains.
- To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard, wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden; to be burdened; -- often with under, and formerly with of.
- To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth.
- To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
2 . Labor [ v. t.]
- To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil.
- To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care.
- To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge stre/uously; as, to labor a point or argument.
- To belabor; to beat.

Meaning of 'labor' (Princeton's WordNet)

1 . labor [ n]
Meaning (1):
- any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
Example in sentence:
  • he prepared for great undertakings
Meaning (2):
- productive work (especially physical work done for wages)
Example in sentence:
  • his labor did not require a great deal of skill
Meaning (3):
- concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child
Example in sentence:
  • she was in labor for six hours
Meaning (4):
- a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
Example in sentence:
  • there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field
5 . labor [ v]
Meaning (5):
- work hard
Example in sentence:
  • Lexicographers drudge all day long;
  • She was digging away at her math homework
Meaning (6):
- strive and make an effort to reach a goal
Example in sentence:
  • She is driving away at her doctoral thesis;
  • She tugged for years to make a decent living;
  • We have to push a little to make the deadline!

Nearby Words:

lab labadist labara labarraque's solution labarum labdanum labefaction labefy label labeled

See 'labor' also in:

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