Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A room or building equipped for scientific experimentation or research.
  • noun An academic period devoted to work or study in such a place.
  • noun A place where drugs and chemicals are manufactured.
  • noun A place for practice, observation, or testing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A room, building, or workshop especially fitted with suitable apparatus for conducting investigations in any department of science or art, or for elaborating or manufacturing chemical, medicinal, or any similar products: as, a chemical or pharmaceutical laboratory; hence, also, figuratively, any place where or in which similar processes are carried on by natural forces.
  • noun Milit., an establishment for the manufacture of rockets, port-fires, fuses, percussion-caps, quick-and slow-matches, friction-primers, electric primers, etc., designed for military operations.
  • noun The space between the fire and the flue-bridges of a reverberatory furnace in which the work is performed.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The workroom of a chemist; also, a place devoted to experiments in any branch of natural science. Hence, by extension, a place where something is prepared, or some operation is performed.
  • noun Any place, activity or situation suggestive of a scientific laboratory{1}, especially in being conducive to learning new facts by experimentation or by systematic observation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a room, building or institution equipped for scientific research, experimentation or analysis
  • noun a place where chemicals, drugs or microbes are prepared or manufactured

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a region resembling a laboratory inasmuch as it offers opportunities for observation and practice and experimentation
  • noun a workplace for the conduct of scientific research

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin labōrātōrium, from Latin labōrāre, to labor, from labor, labor.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin laboratorium

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Examples

  • DURBIN: I can just tell you that what they call a laboratory wouldn't pass any high school laboratory test.

    CNN Transcript Sep 17, 2007 2007

  • DURBIN: I can just tell you that what they call a laboratory wouldn't pass any high school laboratory test.

    CNN Transcript Sep 12, 2007 2007

  • By retaining a portion of the sample for future testing, the laboratory is able to test again if the initial results are inconclusive or if the employee claims a breach in the chain of custody or some other error.

    USATODAY.com - Procedures, processes important in drug testing 2002

  • An extension of his interest from here into the general problems of biology was unavoidable, and thus his laboratory is at present peopled by emigrants from all areas of science on both sides of chemistry - physics on the one hand and biology on the other.

    Melvin Calvin - Biography 1964

  • One particular reason for our building such a laboratory is the attraction of a high-level energy source which may trigger off useful chemical reactions without the use of very high temperatures and pressures.

    The Contribution of Creative Chemistry to the Humanities 1957

  • Rajput Singh was a nut ball Everybody knew he was a nut ball Since he was twelve years old he'd buried himself in what he called his laboratory, a fetid little room crammed with bits and pieces of salvaged electronics, odd chemicals, crumbling written histories of the experiments of ancient alchemists, classical New Age crystal gazers, feet away. and the madder dreams of modern wire headers overdosed on pleasure into a double fist to the point where their brains turned to cottage cheese. of the other man's At thirty-five he was a daze-eyed little rat of a man with a perpetu ed.

    Step into Chaos Shatner, William 1999

  • A discovery in a German laboratory is being demonstrated in San Francisco within twenty-four hours.

    The Shrinkage of the Planet 2010

  • OLED technology uses less energy than incandescent bulbs and, in laboratory use, is nearly as efficient as fluorescent.

    Rethinking the Light Bulb Evan Ramstad 2010

  • Some dyes have shown carcinogenicity in laboratory animals, and dyes may be contaminated with several cancer-causing chemicals.

    Maria Rodale: What's All This Food Coloring Good For? Maria Rodale 2010

  • Studies in laboratory animals have found that testosterone deficiency accelerates plaque build-up on artery walls, which can restrict blood flow.

    Common Hormone Worsens Pain in the Long Term, Study 2010

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