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:
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
A pair of blue and yellow earplugs dangle on Jose’s neck while waiting for work as a day laborer out of the Home Depot in Cypress Park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
Tincher was now a manual laborer on one leg, but he was denied disability benefits by the Social Security Administration the following year.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2025
He must have entered the slaughterhouse with another group of strikebreakers, for he wore the worn denim jeans and collarless shirt of a laborer.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
From the fourth century to the 14th—when sea travel gradually replaced overland caravans—merchants, laborers, religious leaders, and government officials from across Eurasia convened there to exchange goods and culture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Day laborers were largely split on a potential boycott.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
A boycott could harm day laborers who rely on customers to hire them for manual labor jobs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
The fruits of Tahnoon’s push are visible in the form of a massive construction site on a sandy patch of land miles from central Abu Dhabi, where thousands of laborers are working day and night.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
The laborers hadn’t cleaned up when they finished.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
