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
What to know: Two couples’ lives are messily intertwined when one—a wealthy woman with an even wealthier husband—taps the other—a laid-off laborer and his wife—to be the subjects of a documentary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 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
One black laborer explained his presence to a reporter from Jet magazine by saying he had already walked 335 miles to and from work since the boycott started.
From "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose
The Transport Workers Union representing those laborers have vowed court action.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
When the 380-foot steamship Great Republic—one of the world’s largest passenger vessels at the time—arrived in San Francisco from Hong Kong, 1,300 blue-coated Chinese laborers filed down its gangplank.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
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
Were there contractors and laborers working around the clock on a prison days after the hurricane?
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
