Search Result for "labor": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (7)

1. a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages;
- Example: "there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field"
[syn: labor, labour, working class, proletariat]

2. productive work (especially physical work done for wages);
- Example: "his labor did not require a great deal of skill"
[syn: labor, labour, toil]

3. concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child;
- Example: "she was in labor for six hours"
[syn: parturiency, labor, labour, confinement, lying-in, travail, childbed]

4. an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement;
[syn: labor movement, trade union movement, labor]

5. a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries;
[syn: British Labour Party, Labour Party, Labour, Labor]

6. the federal department responsible for promoting the working conditions of wage earners in the United States; created in 1913;
[syn: Department of Labor, Labor Department, Labor, DoL]

7. any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted;
- Example: "he prepared for great undertakings"
[syn: undertaking, project, task, labor]


VERB (3)

1. strive and make an effort to reach a goal;
- Example: "She tugged for years to make a decent living"
- Example: "We have to push a little to make the deadline!"
- Example: "She is driving away at her doctoral thesis"
[syn: tug, labor, labour, push, drive]

2. work hard;
- Example: "She was digging away at her math homework"
- Example: "Lexicographers drudge all day long"
[syn: labor, labour, toil, fag, travail, grind, drudge, dig, moil]

3. undergo the efforts of childbirth;
[syn: labor, labour]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Labor \La"bor\ (l[=a]"b[~e]r), n. [OE. labour, OF. labour, laber, labur, F. labeur, L. labor; cf. Gr. lamba`nein to take, Skr. labh to get, seize.] [Written also labour.] 1. 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. [1913 Webster] God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 2. Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of compiling a history. [1913 Webster] 3. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort. [1913 Webster] Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for. --Hooker. [1913 Webster] 4. Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth. [1913 Webster] The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity; and feared She'll with the labor end. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 5. Any pang or distress. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 6. (Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging. [1913 Webster] 7. [Sp.] A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to an area of 1771/7 acres. --Bartlett. 8. (Mining.) A stope or set of stopes. [Sp. Amer.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.] Syn: Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry; painstaking. See Toll. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Labor \La"bor\, v. t. [F. labourer, L. laborare.] 1. To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil. [1913 Webster] The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only labored by children. --W. Tooke. [1913 Webster] 2. To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care. "To labor arms for Troy." --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 3. To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge strenuously; as, to labor a point or argument. [1913 Webster] 4. To belabor; to beat. [Obs.] --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Labor \La"bor\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Labored; p. pr. & vb. n. Laboring.] [OE. labouren, F. labourer, L. laborare. See Labor, n.] [Written also labour.] 1. To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to work; to toil. [1913 Webster] Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 2. To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any design; to strive; to take pains. [1913 Webster] 3. 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. [1913 Webster] The stone that labors up the hill. --Granville. [1913 Webster] The line too labors, and the words move slow. --Pope. [1913 Webster] To cure the disorder under which he labored. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster] Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. --Matt. xi. 28 [1913 Webster] 4. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor. [1913 Webster] 5. (Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea. --Totten. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

labor n 1: a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages; "there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field" [syn: labor, labour, working class, proletariat] 2: productive work (especially physical work done for wages); "his labor did not require a great deal of skill" [syn: labor, labour, toil] 3: concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child; "she was in labor for six hours" [syn: parturiency, labor, labour, confinement, lying-in, travail, childbed] 4: an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement [syn: labor movement, trade union movement, labor] 5: a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries [syn: British Labour Party, Labour Party, Labour, Labor] 6: the federal department responsible for promoting the working conditions of wage earners in the United States; created in 1913 [syn: Department of Labor, Labor Department, Labor, DoL] 7: any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted; "he prepared for great undertakings" [syn: undertaking, project, task, labor] v 1: strive and make an effort to reach a goal; "She tugged for years to make a decent living"; "We have to push a little to make the deadline!"; "She is driving away at her doctoral thesis" [syn: tug, labor, labour, push, drive] 2: work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework"; "Lexicographers drudge all day long" [syn: labor, labour, toil, fag, travail, grind, drudge, dig, moil] 3: undergo the efforts of childbirth [syn: labor, labour]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

206 Moby Thesaurus words for "labor": accouchement, activities, activity, affair, affairs, aim, always trot out, amplify, assignment, bag, be busy, be confined, be determined, be employed, bear, bear a child, bear young, belabor, birth, birth throes, birthing, blessed event, blunder, business, busywork, calve, careen, career, carry on business, cast, char, chare, charge, childbearing, childbed, childbirth, chore, commerce, commission, complete, concern, concernment, confinement, cultivate, delivery, detail, dirty work, do business, do chars, do the chores, donkeywork, dress, drive, drop, drudge, drudgery, duty, dwell on, dwell upon, effort, elaborate, employ, employees, employment, endeavor, endure, enlarge, enlarge upon, enter into detail, enterprise, errand, exercise, exertion, expand, fag, falter, farrow, fatigue, fawn, fish to fry, flounce, flounder, foal, follow a trade, function, genesis, give birth, giving birth, go into, grind, hammer away at, handiwork, handwork, hard work, harp on, hatching, have, have a baby, have a job, have young, having a baby, homework, industry, insist upon, interest, job, job of work, keep up, kitten, labor under, laborers, laboriousness, lamb, lick, lick of work, lie in, litter, lookout, lurch, make-work, manual labor, matter, matters in hand, mission, moil, moonlight, multiparity, nascency, nativity, occupation, odd job, overdo, overemphasize, overstress, pains, parturition, piece of work, pitch, pitch and plunge, plunge, practice a profession, project, pup, rat race, reel, resolve, rock, roll, scut work, seek, seethe, service, set up shop, slave, slavery, slogging, spadework, spell out, stagger, stay employed, stint, strain, strive, stroke, stroke of work, struggle, study, stumble, suffer, sway, sweat, sweat blood, swing, swot, task, tend, the Nativity, the stork, thing, things to do, thrash about, thresh over, throw, tiresome work, toil, toss, toss and tumble, toss and turn, totter, transact business, travail, treadmill, tug, tumble, turn a hand, undertaking, wallop, wallow, welter, whelp, work, work at, work for, work out, workers, yean
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

LABOR. Continued operation; work. 2. The labor and skill of one man is frequently used in a partnership, and valued as equal to the capital of another. 3. When business has been done for another, and suit is brought to recover a just reward, there is generally contained in the declaration, a count for work and labor. 4. Where penitentiaries exist, persons who have committed crimes are condemned to be imprisoned therein at labor.
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.