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labor
[ ley-ber ]
noun
- productive activity, especially for the sake of economic gain.
- the body of persons engaged in such activity, especially those working for wages.
Synonyms: working class
- this body of persons considered as a class ( management and capital ).
- physical or mental work, especially of a hard or fatiguing kind; toil.
Synonyms: exertion
- a job or task done or to be done.
- the physical effort and periodic uterine contractions of childbirth.
Synonyms: delivery, parturition
- the interval from the onset of these contractions to childbirth.
- (initial capital letter) Also called Labor Department. Informal. the Department of Labor.
verb (used without object)
Synonyms: drudge
Antonyms: rest
- to strive, as toward a goal; work hard (often followed by for ):
to labor for peace.
- to act, behave, or function at a disadvantage (usually followed by under ):
to labor under a misapprehension.
- to be in the actual process of giving birth.
- to roll or pitch heavily, as a ship.
verb (used with object)
adjective
- of or relating to workers, their associations, or working conditions:
labor reforms.
labor
/ ˈleɪbə /
labor
/ lā′bər /
- The process by which the birth of a mammal occurs, beginning with contractions of the uterus and ending with the expulsion of the fetus and the placenta.
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Other Words From
- labor·ing·ly adverb
- labor·less adjective
- anti·labor adjective
- non·labor adjective
- outlabor verb (used with object)
- over·labor verb (used with object)
- pre·labor noun verb (used without object)
- pro·labor adjective
- un·labor·ing adjective
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Word History and Origins
Origin of labor1
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Example Sentences
Expensive day care pushes women out of the labor market while men continue to work outside the home.
Public sector unions have also fractured the labor movement itself.
In Turkey, crime groups in border areas are exploiting the labor of Syrian male refugees who cannot find legitimate employment.
Many more illegal migrants face labor trafficking in Europe as they flee the conflict regions of North Africa and the Middle East.
In the summer of 2014, they both were sentenced to 4-1/2 years in a labor camp.
All over the world the just claims of organized labor are intermingled with the underground conspiracy of social revolution.
The blind Samson of labor will seize upon the pillars of society and bring them down in a common destruction.
The poverty of earlier days was the outcome of the insufficiency of human labor to meet the primal needs of human kind.
Beggars are not abundant; but women are required to labor quite extensively in the fields.
Labor, so it was argued, was perpetually being saved by the constant introduction of new uses of machinery.
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