Labor | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Lā'bor, n.

noun

n. [Lat., Pr., & Sp. labor, It. lavore, lavoro, Fr. labeur.] [Written also labour.]

Sense 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 the like; servile toil; exertion.

God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive. Milton.

Sense 2. Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of compiling a history.

Sense 3. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.

Being a labor of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for. Hooker.

Sense 4. Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth.

The queen's in labor, and 'tis feared Will with the labor end. Shak.

Sense 5. A measure of land in Mexico, equivalent to an area of 177 acres. Simmonds.

Synonyms—Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; painstaking.

Lā'bor, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [imp. & p. p. LABORED; p. pr. & vb. n. LABORING.] [Lat. laborare.] [Written also labour.]

Sense 1. To exert muscular strength; to act or move with painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to work; to toil.

Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden. Milton.

Sense 2. To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any design; to strive; to take pains.

Sense 3. To be oppressed with difficulties; to move slowly or with opposition, or as if under a burden;—often with under, and formerly with of. “The stone that labors up the hill.” Glanville. “The pretensions he set up to cure the disorder under which he labored.” W. Scott.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matt. xi. 28.

Sense 4. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth.

Sense 5. (Naut.) To move irregularly with little progress; to pitch and roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.

Lā'bor, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [Fr. labourer, O. Fr. laborer, Pr. laborar, Sp. labrar, laborear, Pg. lavrar, It. lavorare, Lat. laborare. See supra.]

Sense 1. To work at; to till; hence, to attain by labor; to foster or cultivate by toil.

The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only labored by children. Tooke.

Labor that first palm of noble minds, A manly scorn of terror from the tomb. Young.

Sense 2. To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care; as, to labor arms for Troy. Dryden.

Sense 3. To finish or prosecute with effort; to urge; as, to labor a point or argument.

Sense 4. To beat; to belabor. [Rare.]

Laboring force (Mech.), the power applied to machinery, &c., in distinction from the power actually transmitted to the point of effect, the difference being made by the expenditure of part of the laboring force in overcoming friction, &c., before it becomes a working force. — Laboring oar, the oar which requires the most strength or exertion, or on which most depends.