labor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Physical or mental exertion, especially when difficult or exhausting; work. See Synonyms at work.
2. n. Something produced by work.
3. n. A specific task.
4. n. A particular form of work or method of working: manual labor.
5. n. Work for wages.
6. n. Workers considered as a group.
7. n. The trade union movement, especially its officials.
8. n. A political party representing workers' interests, especially in Great Britain.
9. n. The process by which childbirth occurs, beginning with contractions of the uterus and ending with the expulsion of the fetus or infant and the placenta.
10. v. To work; toil: labored in the fields.
11. v. To strive painstakingly: labored over the needlepoint.
12. v. To proceed with great effort; plod: labored up the hill.
13. v. Nautical To pitch and roll.
14. v. To suffer from distress or a disadvantage: labored under the misconception that others were cooperating.
15. v. To undergo the efforts of childbirth.
16. v. To deal with in exhaustive or excessive detail; belabor: labor a point in the argument.
17. v. To distress; burden: I will not labor you with trivial matters.
18. adj. Of or relating to labor.
19. adj. Of or relating to a Labor Party.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Work done by a human being or an animal; exertion of body or mind, or both, for the accomplishment of an end; effort made to attain useful results, in distinction from exercise for the sake of recreation or amusement.
2. n. Specifically, bodily toil; physical exertion for the sake of gain or reward; the use of muscular strength for the satisfaction of wants, in distinction from purely mental exertion and from the productive use of capital. Skilled labor is that employed in arts and handicrafts which have to be learned by apprenticeship or study and practice; unskilled labor is that requiring no preparatory training. Nearly all work of both classes is included in the phrase manual labor.
3. n. Work done or to be done; that which requires exertion or effort; a work; a performance; an achievement: as, the twelve labors of Hercules.
4. n. The laboring class; productive work as represented by those devoted to it: as, the claims or rights of labor; the labor -market.
5. n. The pangs and efforts of childbirth; parturition; travail. The first stage of labor is from the beginning to the complete dilatation of the os uteri; the second stage consists in the expulsion of the child, and the third in that of the afterbirth.
6. n. (Sp. pron. lä-bōr′ ). In the quicksilver-mines of California, any place where work has been or is going on; especially, in the plural, those parts of the mine from which ore is being extracted in some quantity; workings.
7. n. Synonyms Toil, Drudgery, etc. (see work); effort, pains.
8. To make a physical or mental effort to accomplish some end; exert the powers of body or mind for the attainment of some result; work; strive. The word often implies painful or strenuous effort.
9. Specifically, to exert the muscular power of the body for the attainment of some end; engage in physical or manual toil.
10. To be burdened; be oppressed with difficulties; proceed or act with difficulty: used absolutely, or followed by under or (formerly) of.
11. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; be in travail.
12. To move forward heavily and with difficulty; specifically, of a ship, to roll and pitch heavily in a seaway, or in such a manner as to bring a dangerous strain upon the masts, rigging, and hull.
13. Synonyms To struggle, plod, drudge, slave, suffer.
14. To cause to work; exercise.
15. To work at; specifically, to till; cultivate.
16. To produce by labor; make or work out with effort; expend labor on; strive for.
17. To urge; labor with.
18. To beat; belabor.
19. n. A Mexican land-measure, equal to 177 acres.

Wiktionary

1. n. US Alternative form of labour.
2. v. US Alternative form of labour.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. n. Intellectual exertion; mental effort.
3. n. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
4. n. Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth.
5. n. Any pang or distress.
6. n. (Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
7. n. A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to an area of 1771/7 acres.
8. n. (Mining.), Sp. Amer. A stope or set of stopes.
9. v. To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to work; to toil.
10. v. To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any design; to strive; to take pains.
11. v. 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.
12. v. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
13. v. (Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
14. v. To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil.
15. v. To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care.
16. v. To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge strenuously.
17. v. obsolete To belabor; to beat.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. undergo the efforts of childbirth
2. n. an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement
3. v. strive and make an effort to reach a goal
4. n. a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
5. n. productive work (especially physical work done for wages)
6. n. the federal department responsible for promoting the working conditions of wage earners in the United States; created in 1913
7. n. any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
8. v. work hard
9. n. concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child
10. n. a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries