Labour
[leibә]
Definition
n. toil or exertion esp. when fatiguing: work: pains: duties: a task requiring hard work: the pangs of childbirth.—v.i. to undergo labour: to work: to take pains: to be oppressed: to move slowly: to be in travail: (naut.) to pitch and roll heavily.—adj. Labō′rious full of labour: toilsome: wearisome: devoted to labour: industrious.—adv. Labō′riously.—n. Labō′riousness.—adj. Lā′boured bearing marks of labour or effort in the execution.—ns. Lā′bourer one who labours: one who does work requiring little skill; Lā′bourist one who contends for the interests of workmen.—adjs. Lā′bour-sav′ing intended to supersede or lessen the labour of men; Lā′boursome (Shak.) made with labour and diligence.—Labour Day a legal holiday in some parts of the United States as in New York (the first Monday in September); Labour market the supply of unemployed labour in relation to the demand for it; Labour of love work undertaken merely as an act of friendliness and without hope of emolument; Labour with to take pains to convince.—Hard labour compulsory work imposed on certain criminals in addition to imprisonment.
Editor: Martin
Examples
- Great was the labour; priceless the reward. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Might not that woman, by her labour, have made the reparation ordained by God in paying fourfold? Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Provisions are thereby rendered dearer, in the same manner as if it required extraordinary labour and expense to raise them. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The manufacturer has always been accustomed to look for his subsistence from his labour only; the soldier to expect it from his pay. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Her perpetual study was to relieve us from labour and to spread ease and even elegance over our altered mode of life. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- He deserved it all--all labour, all devotion, all sacrifice; I would have toiled up a scaleless Alp, to pluck a flower that would please him. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- The wages of labour, however, are much higher in North America than in any part of England. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- I wish continued success to the labours of the Royal Society, and that you may long adorn their chair; being, with the highest esteem, dear sir, &c. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- With this resolution I traversed the northern highlands, and fixed on one of the remotest of the Orkneys as the scene labours. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- And you felt self-satisfied with the result of your ardent labours? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- It has been said that electrical science began with the labours of Dr. Gilbert, published in 1600. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- It seems as if he must go mad in the necessity he feels for haste and the inability under which he labours of expressing to do what or to fetch whom. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Felix and Agatha spent more time in amusement and conversation, and were assisted in their labours by servants. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- That it has hitherto increased them so little, is probably owing to the restraints which it everywhere labours under. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Because, whoever did, the labouring people did not. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- Why, what had I to fear, I thought, when there was this nobility in the soul of a labouring man's daughter! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Hitherto they had been voiceless, wordless, needing all their breath for their hard-labouring efforts to break down the gates. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- The harnesses of the farmer's and labouring man's horses a century ago, when they were fortunate enough to own horses, were of the crudest description. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- If the labouring poor, therefore, can maintain their families in the one part of the united kingdom, they must be in affluence in the other. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- If she had been born a Queen Bee, and they labouring Bees, they could not have been more satisfied of that. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- The farmer makes his profit by keeping the labouring cattle, and by parting with their maintenance. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- He laboured faithfully in the parish. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- By degrees, in the pauses of his quick and laboured breathing, he was heard to say: What is this? Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- The very breathing of the figure was contemptible, as it laboured and rattled in that operation, like a blundering clock. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- This was load enough to crush him, and he laboured under it day and night. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- You laboured to win her round; I did nothing. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Ephraim is an heartless dove--Issachar an over-laboured drudge, which stoops between two burdens. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- This however did not prevent my writing a laboured letter, which had cost me three copies, to try to melt Colonel Quintin's heart in his favour. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
Edited by Leah