Labrador
Americannoun
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Labradors
plural
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a peninsula in northeastern North America surrounded by Hudson Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, containing the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Quebec. 510,000 sq. mi. (1,320,900 sq. km).
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the portion of Newfoundland in the eastern part of the peninsula. About 120,000 sq. mi. (310,800 sq. km).
noun
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Also called: Labrador-Ungava. a large peninsula of NE Canada, on the Atlantic, the Gulf of St Lawrence, Hudson Strait, and Hudson Bay: contains most of Quebec and the mainland part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador; geologically part of the Canadian Shield. Area: 1 619 000 sq km (625 000 sq miles)
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Also called: Coast of Labrador. a region of NE Canada, on the Atlantic and consisting of the mainland part of Newfoundland and Labrador province
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(often not capital) short for Labrador retriever
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It is the eastern part of the large Labrador-Ungava peninsular region of eastern Canada.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Labrador
First recorded in 1700–10; the peninsula was named after João Fernandes Lavrador (1453–1501), Portuguese explorer
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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.
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In another case involving the bureau, a black Labrador named Spike who was trained to detect fire accelerants in arson investigations overheated after a sergeant left him in a car for more than four hours.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Christina Bluhme, a dog trainer from Esher in Surrey, was halfway up the UK's highest mountain when her black Labrador Tokyo collapsed on the trail.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
Wearing her blue harness, this restless brown Labrador retriever ventures into the debris of buildings that collapsed in the earthquakes of June 24.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
The lure of foreign travel seduced him as well, for his sketching trips would eventually take him to the Andes as well as to Labrador, Jamaica and the Near East.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
I wake early, pick a few Labrador tea leaves and brew them in Bando’s tin cup.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
For 31 years Labradors topped the American Kennel Club’s purebred rankings, which are based on more than one million annual registrations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
The studies found that Labradors that received 25 percent fewer calories than their littermates lived almost two years longer and saw a similar delay in the onset of age-associated disease.
From Slate ● Apr. 23, 2025
A genetic mutation makes some Labradors and flat-coated retrievers constantly hungry while burning fewer calories, say scientists.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2024
The new study reveals how the mutation profoundly changes the way Labradors and flatcoated retrievers behave around food.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2024
Eventually he pleaded guilty to vandalism and, I guess, dognapping, although he agreed to pay for the Labradors and a new set of Winnebago tires.
From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen
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.
