LABOUR

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Labour mean? 

• LABOUR (noun)
  The noun LABOUR has 4 senses:

1. a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages

2. concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child

3. a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries

4. productive work (especially physical work done for wages)

  Familiarity information: LABOUR used as a noun is uncommon.

• LABOUR (verb)
  The verb LABOUR has 3 senses:

1. work hard

2. strive and make an effort to reach a goal

3. undergo the efforts of childbirth

  Familiarity information: LABOUR used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LABOUR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

labor; labour; proletariat; working class

Context example:

there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field

Hypernyms ("labour" is a kind of...):

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

Meronyms (members of "labour"):

prole; proletarian; worker (a member of the working class (not necessarily employed))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "labour"):

labor force; labor pool (the source of trained people from which workers can be hired)

lumpenproletariat ((Marxism) the unorganized lower levels of the proletariat who are not interested in revolutionary advancement)

organized labor (employees who are represented by a labor union)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

childbed; confinement; labor; labour; lying-in; parturiency; travail

Context example:

she was in labor for six hours

Hypernyms ("labour" is a kind of...):

birth; birthing; giving birth; parturition (the process of giving birth)

Meronyms (parts of "labour"):

uterine contraction (a rhythmic tightening in labor of the upper uterine musculature that contracts the size of the uterus and pushes the fetus toward the birth canal)

effacement (shortening of the uterine cervix and thinning of its walls as it is dilated during labor)

asynclitism; obliquity (the presentation during labor of the head of the fetus at an abnormal angle)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "labour"):

premature labor; premature labour (labor beginning prior to the 37th week of gestation)

Holonyms ("labour" is a part of...):

gestation; maternity; pregnancy (the state of being pregnant; the period from conception to birth when a woman carries a developing fetus in her uterus)

Derivation:

labour (undergo the efforts of childbirth)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

British Labour Party; Labor; Labour; Labour Party

Hypernyms ("Labour" is a kind of...):

labor party; labour party (a left-of-center political party formed to represent the interest of ordinary working people)

Meronyms (members of "Labour"):

Labourite (a member of the British Labour Party)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Productive work (especially physical work done for wages)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

labor; labour; toil

Context example:

his labor did not require a great deal of skill

Hypernyms ("labour" is a kind of...):

work (activity directed toward making or doing something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "labour"):

roping (capturing cattle or horses with a lasso)

corvee (unpaid labor (as for the maintenance of roads) required by a lord of his vassals in lieu of taxes)

donkeywork; drudgery; grind; plodding (hard monotonous routine work)

effort; elbow grease; exertion; sweat; travail (use of physical or mental energy; hard work)

hunt; hunting (the work of finding and killing or capturing animals for food or pelts)

hackwork (professional work done according to formula)

haymaking (cutting grass and curing it to make hay)

manual labor; manual labour (labor done with the hands)

overwork; overworking (the act of working too much or too long)

slavery (work done under harsh conditions for little or no pay)

Derivation:

labour (strive and make an effort to reach a goal)

labour (work hard)

• LABOUR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they labour ... he / she / it labours   
Past simple: laboured   
Past participle: laboured   
-ing form: labouring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Work hard

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

dig; drudge; fag; grind; labor; labour; moil; toil; travail

Context example:

Lexicographers drudge all day long

Hypernyms (to "labour" is one way to...):

do work; work (be employed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

labour (productive work (especially physical work done for wages))

labourer (someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strive and make an effort to reach a goal

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

drive; labor; labour; push; tug

Context example:

She is driving away at her doctoral thesis

Hypernyms (to "labour" is one way to...):

fight; struggle (make a strenuous or labored effort)

Verb group:

bear on; push (press, drive, or impel (someone) to action or completion of an action)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "labour"):

reach; strain; strive (to exert much effort or energy)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Derivation:

labour (productive work (especially physical work done for wages))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Undergo the efforts of childbirth

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

labor; labour

Hypernyms (to "labour" is one way to...):

undergo (pass through)

"Labour" entails doing...:

bear; birth; deliver; give birth; have (cause to be born)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

labour (concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child)

 Context examples 

The difficulties under which they had laboured all night, and which had found utterance in the most terrific gasps and snorts, are not to be conceived.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“‘When the topmen clear the raffle with their clasp-knives in their teeth,’” she quoted at me; and for the rest of the afternoon we made merry over our labour.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

You have lost your labour—you had better go no farther, urged the monitor.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The soldier consented, and next day laboured with all his strength, but could not finish it by the evening.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

This labour took up several days’ conversation, before he was able to comprehend me.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A couple of hours at Day’s Music Hall in the evening would do you no harm after your labours.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Most earnestly did she labour to prove the probability of error, and seek to clear the one without involving the other.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

In the morning come the Szgany, who have some labours of their own here, and also come some Slovaks.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You are always labouring and toiling, exposed to every risk and hardship.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Depart to your home and commence your labours; I shall watch their progress with unutterable anxiety; and fear not but that when you are ready I shall appear.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)