labourer

British

/ ˈleɪbərə /

noun

a person engaged in physical work, esp of an unskilled kind

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"Everyone is worried," said 29-year-old labourer Bunty Goswami, a migrant worker at a shut plant.

From Barron's • Mar. 29, 2026

"Rising from the life of a young labourer, you have demonstrated through your own journey that democracy is the most powerful instrument for social and economic development," Lee said in a statement.

From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026

In the mid-1990s Wright had been working as a labourer in Felixstowe and lived in the town until he moved to Ipswich in 2006.

From BBC • Feb. 2, 2026

But with opportunities scarce back home at the end of his three years, finding a welding job as an undocumented labourer proved much simpler.

From Barron's • Jan. 7, 2026

Toward the end of 1966 my father was temporarily laid off his job as a menial labourer for a white firm in Germiston, a white city an hour’s bus ride southeast of Johannesburg.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023