label

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An item used to identify something or someone, as a small piece of paper or cloth attached to an article to designate its origin, owner, contents, use, or destination.
2. n. A descriptive term; an epithet.
3. n. A distinctive name or trademark identifying a product or manufacturer, especially a recording company.
4. n. Architecture A molding over a door or window; a dripstone.
5. n. Heraldry A figure in a field consisting of a narrow horizontal bar with several pendants.
6. n. Chemistry See tracer.
7. v. To attach a label to.
8. v. To identify or designate with a label; describe or classify: labeled them Yuppies. See Synonyms at mark¹.
9. v. Chemistry To add a tracer to (a compound).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A small loosely hanging flap; specifically, a pendant like a broad ribbon hanging from a head-dress; a lappet.
2. n. In heraldry:
3. n. One of the ribbons that hang down from a miter or the electoral crown. See infula, 3 .
4. n. A fillet resembling a barrulet with three or more pendent drops or points, which were originally straight with parallel sides, but are now usually shaped like a dovetail. It is used as a bearing, but especially as a difference, as in cadency, to indicate the oldest son. Some authorities say that the label when used for cadency should have seven points while the great-grandfather of the bearer is alive, five while his grandfather is alive, and three while the father lives. In nearly all cases the label, whether a bearing or a difference, has an odd number of points. These points are also called lambeaux. In a very few cases the label is borne bendwise. A label of three (or more) points, crossed has, instead of the ordinary lambeaux, small crosses pointing downward, which may be Latin crosses reversed or Greek crosses. A label of three (or more) pomegranates pendent has, instead of lambeaux, rounded fruit represented as burst open. A label of three (or more) tags pendent has, instead of lambeaux, strips intended to represent the parchment ribbons to which seals are affixed in ancient documents. A label with the points crect, or a label reversed, is seldom used by itself, but in connection with an ordinary label, in which case the blazon is a label counterposed with another, the points erect, or two labels indorsed, or more rarely bars-gemel patté. See lambeau Also called file and lambel.
5. n. A slip of paper or any other material, bearing a name, title, address, or the like, affixed to something to indicate its nature, contents, ownership, destination, or other particulars.
6. n. A narrow slip of parchment or paper, or a ribbon of silk, affixed to a diploma, deed, or other formal writing, to hold the appended seal.
7. n. In law, a paper annexed to a will by way of addition, as a codicil.
8. n. A small reserved space in a work of art, or the like, forming a panel or cartouche, used for containing a name, monogram, or other mark for identification.
9. n. In medieval architecture, a projecting tablet or molding over a door or window. See dripstone, Also called label-molding.
10. n. A long, thin brass rule, with a small sight at one end and a centerhole at the other, commonly used with a tangent line on the edge of a circumferentor, to take altitudes, etc.
11. n. Border; verge; marge.
12. To affix a label to; mark with a label: as, to label a package to be despatched by express.
13. To designate or describe by or on a label; characterize by inscription: as, the bottle was labeled poison.
14. To set forth or describe in a label (in the legal sense).
15. In architecture, to furnish with labels or hood-moldings. See label, n., 7.
16. n. In botany, same as labellum, 1.

Wiktionary

1. n. A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
2. n. A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.
3. n. A company that sells records.
4. n. computing A user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
5. n. computing A named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
6. v. transitive To put a label (a ticket or sign) on (something).
7. v. transitive To give a label to (someone or something) in order to categorise that person or thing.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A tassel.
2. n. A slip of silk, paper, parchment, etc., affixed to anything, and indicating, usually by an inscription, the contents, ownership, destination, etc..
3. n. A slip of ribbon, parchment, etc., attached to a document to hold the appended seal; also, the seal.
4. n. A writing annexed by way of addition, as a codicil added to a will.
5. n. (Her.) A barrulet, or, rarely, a bendlet, with pendants, or points, usually three, especially used as a mark of cadency to distinguish an eldest or only son while his father is still living.
6. n. A brass rule with sights, formerly used, in connection with a circumferentor, to take altitudes.
7. n. (Gothic Arch.) The name now generally given to the projecting molding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediæval architecture. It always has a square form, as in the illustration.
8. n. In mediæval art, the representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
9. v. To affix a label to; to mark with a name, etc..
10. v. rare To affix in or on a label.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. assign a label to; designate with a label
2. v. pronounce judgment on
3. n. an identifying or descriptive marker that is attached to an object
4. n. trade name of a company that produces musical recordings
5. v. distinguish (as a compound or molecule) by introducing a labeled atom
6. v. attach a tag or label to
7. n. a radioactive isotope that is used in a compound in order to trace the mechanism of a chemical reaction
8. v. distinguish (an element or atom) by using a radioactive isotope or an isotope of unusual mass for tracing through chemical reactions
9. n. a brief description given for purposes of identification