labour

1 BrE, labor AmE noun

1 WORK (U) effort or work, especially physical work: The garage charges -30 an hour for labour. | manual labour (=work with tools you hold in your hands): Building still involves a lot of manual labour. | withdraw your labour (=protest by stopping work): Workers withdrew their labour for twenty-four hours.

-see also: hard labour

2 WORKERS (U) all the people who work for a company or in a country: Organized labour banded together to fight the anti-union laws. | skilled/unskilled labour: a shortage of skilled labor | cheap labour (=people who are paid very low wages) | labour costs/shortages etc: Immigrants may help to solve labour shortages.

-see also: labour force

3 BABY (singular, uncountable) the process in which a baby is born by being pushed from its mother's body, or the period of time during which this happens: be in labour: Meg was in labour for 6 hours. | go into labour: Diane went into labour at 2 o'clock. | labour pains/ward/room: No men were allowed in the labour room.

4 a labour of love something that is hard work but that you do because you want to

5 my/your labours formal a period of hard work: We sat down to rest after our labours.

2 adjective supporting or connected with the British labour party: a Labour MP | Labour policies 2 BrE labor AmE verb

1 (I) to try very hard to do something; struggle

(+ over): I've been labouring over this report all morning. | labour to do sth: Ray had little talent but labored to acquire the skills of a writer.

2 (I) to work hard: Marina had laboured late into the night to finish her essay.

3 labour under a delusion/misconception/misapprehension etc to believe something that is not true

4 labour the point to describe or explain something in too much detail or when people have already understood it

5 (I) if an engine labours it turns too slowly and with difficulty