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labour

Flag: gbEnglishOxford Dictionary of English
labour /ˈleɪbə / (US English labor)
▸ noun [mass noun]
1 work, especially physical work:
the price of repairs includes labour, parts, and VAT
manual labour.
▪ workers, especially manual workers, considered collectively:
non-union casual labour.
▪ workers considered as a social class or political force:
[as modifier] the labour movement.
▪ [as modifier] (Labour) a government department concerned with a nation's workforce:
the Labour Secretary.
2 [treated as singular or plural] (Labour) the Labour Party:
[as modifier] the Labour leader.
3 the process of childbirth from the start of uterine contractions to delivery:
a woman in labour.
4 rare a group of moles:
a labour of moles toils with the Earth.
▸ verb [no object]
1 work hard; make great effort:
they laboured from dawn to dusk
she was patiently labouring over her sketchbooks.
▪ work at an unskilled manual occupation:
he was eking out an existence by labouring.
▪ [with object] archaic till (the ground):
the land belonged to him who laboured it.
2 have difficulty in doing something despite working hard:
United laboured against confident opponents.
▪ [with adverbial of direction] move or proceed with difficulty:
they laboured up a steep, tortuous track.
▪ (of an engine) work noisily and with difficulty:
the wheels churned, the engine labouring.
▪ (of a ship) roll or pitch heavily:
the seas ran high, and the ship laboured hard.
3 (of a woman in childbirth) be in labour:
she laboured very well and comfortably because she was relaxed.
– PHRASES
labour of Hercules each of the twelve very difficult tasks imposed on the Greek mythological hero Hercules (or Heracles). See Hercules
▪
a very difficult task:
they face a labour of Hercules to clear the weeds.
labour of love
a task done for pleasure, not reward:
he spent eight years rebuilding the house—a labour of love.
labour the point
explain or discuss something at excessive length.
– PHRASAL VERBS
labour under
1 (labour under something) carry a very heavy load with difficulty:
two servants appeared, labouring under the weight of a kitchen table.
2 (labour under something) be misled by a mistaken belief:
you've been labouring under a misapprehension.
– ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French labour (noun), labourer (verb), both from Latin labor ‘toil, trouble’.