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label

[ley-buh l]
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noun
  1. a slip of paper, cloth, or other material, marked or inscribed, for attachment to something to indicate its manufacturer, nature, ownership, destination, etc.
  2. a short word or phrase descriptive of a person, group, intellectual movement, etc.
  3. a word or phrase indicating that what follows belongs in a particular category or classification: The following definition has the label “Archit.”
  4. Architecture. a molding or dripstone over a door or window, especially one that extends horizontally across the top of the opening and vertically downward for a certain distance at the sides.
  5. a brand or trademark, especially of a manufacturer of phonograph records, tape cassettes, etc.: She records under a new label.
  6. the manufacturer using such a label: a major label that has produced some of the best recordings of the year.
  7. Heraldry. a narrow horizontal strip with a number of downward extensions of rectangular or dovetail form, usually placed in chief as the cadency mark of an eldest son.
  8. Obsolete. a strip or narrow piece of anything.
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verb (used with object), la·beled, la·bel·ing or (especially British) la·belled, la·bel·ling.
  1. to affix a label to; mark with a label.
  2. to designate or describe by or on a label: The bottle was labeled poison.
  3. to put in a certain class; classify.
  4. Also radiolabel. Chemistry. to incorporate a radioactive or heavy isotope into (a molecule) in order to make traceable.
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Origin of label

1275–1325; Middle English < Middle French: ribbon, perhaps < Germanic. See lap1
Related formsla·bel·er, nounnon·la·bel·ing, adjective, nounnon·la·bel·ling, adjective, nounpre·la·bel, noun, verb (used with object), pre·la·beled, pre·la·bel·ing or (especially British) pre·la·belled, pre·la·bel·ling.re·la·bel, verb (used with object), re·la·beled, re·la·bel·ing or (especially British) re·la·belled, re·la·bel·ling.un·la·beled, adjectiveun·la·belled, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for label

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Did you notice you could read every letter in the label on that ham?

    The Spenders

    Harry Leon Wilson

  • Then label the cans, so that no mistake will be made as to their contents.

    Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5

    Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

  • "I wonder if you have noticed something," she said, eyes on the label.

    K

    Mary Roberts Rinehart

  • Down on your knees and tear off the label from the wrong side of another carpet!

    It Happened in Egypt

    C. N. Williamson

  • Except for the label, the "Finest Columbia Salmon" was ready for the market.

    American Notes

    Rudyard Kipling

British Dictionary definitions for label

label

noun
  1. a piece of paper, card, or other material attached to an object to identify it or give instructions or details concerning its ownership, use, nature, destination, etc; tag
  2. a brief descriptive phrase or term given to a person, group, school of thought, etcthe label "Romantic" is applied to many different kinds of poetry
  3. a word or phrase heading a piece of text to indicate or summarize its contents
  4. a trademark or company or brand name on certain goods, esp, formerly, on gramophone records
  5. another name for dripstone (def. 2)
  6. heraldry a charge consisting of a horizontal line across the chief of a shield with three or more pendants: the charge of an eldest son
  7. computing a group of characters, such as a number or a word, appended to a particular statement in a program to allow its unique identification
  8. chem a radioactive element used in a compound to trace the mechanism of a chemical reaction
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verb -bels, -belling or -belled or US -bels, -beling or -beled (tr)
  1. to fasten a label to
  2. to mark with a label
  3. to describe or classify in a word or phraseto label someone a liar
  4. to make (one or more atoms in a compound) radioactive, for use in determining the mechanism of a reaction
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Derived Formslabeller, noun

Word Origin

C14: from Old French, from Germanic; compare Old High German lappa rag
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

Word Origin and History for label

n.

c.1300, "narrow band or strip of cloth" (oldest use is as a technical term in heraldry), from Old French label, lambel "ribbon, fringe worn on clothes" (13c., Modern French lambeau "strip, rag, shred, tatter"), possibly from Frankish *labba or some other Germanic source (cf. Old High German lappa "flap"), from Proto-Germanic *lapp- (see lap (n.)).

Later "dangling strip of cloth or ribbon used as an ornament in dress," "strip attached to a document to hold a seal" (both early 15c.), and with a general meaning "tag, sticker, slip of paper" (1670s). Meaning "circular piece of paper in the center of a gramophone record" (1907), containing information about the recorded music, led to meaning "a recording company" (1947).

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v.

"to affix a label to," c.1600, see label (n.); figurative sense of "to categorize" is from 1853. Related: Labeled; labeling; labelled; labelling.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
label in Science

label

[lā′bəl]
  1. See tracer.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.