laborer
Americannoun
-
laborers
plural
-
a person engaged in work that requires bodily strength rather than skill or training.
a laborer in the field.
-
any worker.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of laborer
Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; see origin at labor, -er 1
Explanation
A laborer is a worker, especially a person who does some kind of physical work. A stone mason is a laborer, but you probably wouldn't call a poet a laborer. In the old days, the word laborer implied an unskilled or menial worker, like a day laborer on a farm who might be hired at an hourly rate to haul rocks out of a field, or a street paver's assistant. Today, a laborer is thought of as someone who works with her hands, often outside. Laborer comes from labor, in Old French "work, exertion, or task," from the Latin laborem, "toil, exertion, or fatigue."
Vocabulary lists containing laborer
The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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The Industrial Revolution - Middle School and High School
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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.
See Examples For:
After returning to Bradford-on-Avon, Byfield initially supported himself as a farm laborer.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
Written by Jimmy Webb and released in 1968, it tells the lonely story of a laborer in Kansas who imagines the voice of the woman who got away humming down the endless telephone wires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
According to tradition, Caedmon worked as a laborer at Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire.
From Science Daily ● May 17, 2026
This laborer wants to know what you mean by labor becoming tokenized.
From Barron's ● Mar. 27, 2026
Whitiker sent Nicholas to live with his father, a laborer who had married, had other children, and lived on the other side of town.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
North Korean workers in Russia typically live in dormitories next to production facilities, said Alisa Svitova, a 21-year-old student who worked this year as an interpreter for North Korean laborers in Russian agricultural factories.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
She is one of several performers who play the roles known collectively as “Kinker & Roust,” slang terms for acrobats/aerialists and “roustabouts,” a.k.a. circus laborers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Daniel Barbou, an 84-year-old grape picker, joined a small army of laborers in the scramble to harvest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
The lives of servants and laborers can be difficult to reconstruct.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
When we leave the chapel, we find the soldiers and laborers gathered at the cook fire.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
