Labor : (noun)
1: productive work (especially physical work done for wages);
"his labor did not require a great deal of skill" [syn:
labour, toil]
2: a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work
for wages; "there is a shortage of skilled labor in this
field" [syn: labour, working class, proletariat]
3: concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of labor to
the birth of a child; "she was in labor for six hours"
[syn: parturiency, labour, confinement, lying-in,
travail, childbed]
4: an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by
united action especially via labor unions (especially the
leaders of this movement) [syn: labor movement, trade
union movement]
5: a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900;
characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and
the socialization of key industries [syn: Labour Party,
Labour, Labor Party, Labor]
6: the federal department responsible for promoting the working
conditions of wage earners in the United States; created
in 1913 [syn: Department of Labor, Labor Department, Labor,
DoL]
7: any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted; "he
prepared for great undertakings" [syn: undertaking, project,
task]
(verb)
1: strive and make an effort to reach a goal; "She tugged for
years to make a decent living"; "We have to push a
little to make the deadline!"; "She is driving away at
her doctoral thesis" [syn: tug, labour, push, drive]
2: work hard; "She was digging away at her math homework";
"Lexicographers drudge all day long" [syn: labour, toil,
fag, travail, grind, drudge, dig, moil]
3: undergo the efforts of childbirth [syn: labour]
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Labor : \La"bor\, n. [OE. labour, OF. labour, laber, labur, F.
labeur, L. labor; cf. Gr. lamba`nein to take, Skr. labh to
get, seize.] [Written also labour.]
1. Physical toil or bodily exertion, especially when
fatiguing, irksome, or unavoidable, in distinction from
sportive exercise; hard, muscular effort directed to some
useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, and like;
servile toil; exertion; work.
God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to
men Successive. --Milton.
2. Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of
compiling a history.
3. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that
which demands effort.
Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact
performance thereof we may rather wish than look
for. --Hooker.
4. Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth.
The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity;
and feared She'll with the labor end. --Shak.
5. Any pang or distress. --Shak.
6. (Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results
in the straining of timbers and rigging.
7. [Sp.] A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to
an area of 1771/7 acres. --Bartlett.
Syn: Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry;
painstaking. See Toll.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Labor : \La"bor\, v. t. [F. labourer, L. laborare.]
1. To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil.
The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only
labored by children. --W. Tooke.
2. To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care. ``To
labor arms for Troy.'' --Dryden.
3. To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge
stre?uously; as, to labor a point or argument.
4. To belabor; to beat. [Obs.] --Dryden.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Labor : \La"bor\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Labored; p. pr. & vb. n.
Laboring.] [OE. labouren, F. labourer, L. laborare. See
Labor, n.] [Written also labour.]
1. To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with
painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to
work; to toil.
Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden.
--Milton.
2. To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any
design; to strive; to take pains.
3. To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's
work under conditions which make it especially hard,
wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under
a burden; to be burdened; -- often with under, and
formerly with of.
The stone that labors up the hill. --Granville.
The line too labors,and the words move slow. --Pope.
To cure the disorder under which he labored. --Sir
W. Scott.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. --Matt. xi. 28
4. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth.
5. (Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent
sea. -- Totten.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Labor : \La"bor\, n. (Mining.)
A store or set of stopes. [Sp. Amer.]
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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LABOR. Continued operation; work.
2. TheLabor : and skill of one man is frequently used in a partnership,
and valued as equal to the capital of another.
3. When business has been done for another, and suit is brought to
recover a just reward, there is generally contained in the declaration, a
count for work and labor.
4. Where penitentiaries exist, persons who have committed crimes are
condemned to be imprisoned therein at labor.
Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:
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Labor : Labor: Childbirth, the aptly-named experience of delivering the baby and vagina to the outside world. There are two stages of labor. During the first stage (called the stage of
dilatation), the cervix dilates fully to a diameter of about 10 cm. In the second stage (called the stage of expulsion), the baby moves out through the cervix and vagina to be born.
The first stage of labor, the time when the cervix dilates, is conventionally divided into two phases: - The latent phase -- Contractions become progressively more coordinated and the
cervix dilates to 4 cm. The latent phase averages about 8 hours in a nullipara (a woman having her first baby) and 5 hours in a multipara (a woman with multiple pregnancies). This phase is considered
distinctly abnormal if it lasts more than 20 hours in a nullipara or more than 12 hours in a multigravida.
- The active phase -- The cervix becomes fully dilated and the presenting
part of the baby descends into the midpelvis. The active phase averages about 5 hours in nulliparas and 2 hours in multiparas.
The second stage of labor, the time from full cervical dilation to the delivery of the baby, lasts on the average 2 hours in nulliparas and l hour in multiparas. It may last an additional hour if
there is an epidural In a spontaneous delivery, the woman must supplement her uterine contractions by bearing down.
In Latin, the word labor means "a troublesome effort or suffering." Parturition is another term for "labor." It comes from the Latin parturire, "to be ready to bear young" and is
related to partus, "to produce." To labor in this sense is to produce.
Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:
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