labor
a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
How often you will meet it
Rank 2,624 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 6,381 times across 173,849 chapters — 0.003% of every word in the library.
What it means
noun
- a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages also: labour, working class, proletariat there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field
- productive work (especially physical work done for wages) also: labour, toil his labor did not require a great deal of skill
- concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child also: parturiency, labour, confinement, lying-in, travail, childbed she was in labor for six hours
- an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement also: labor movement, trade union movement
- a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries also: British Labour Party, Labour Party, Labour
- the federal department responsible for promoting the working conditions of wage earners in the United States; created in 1913 also: Department of Labor, Labor Department, DoL
verb
- strive and make an effort to reach a goal also: tug, labour, push, drive She tugged for years to make a decent livingWe have to push a little to make the deadline!
labor in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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I quaked all over, like Honest Labor in the pictures.
The Motormaniacs · Lloyd Osbourne · Chapter 1
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The first youth is the common country-boy, whose race has been bred to bodily labor.
Elsie Venner · Oliver Wendell Holmes · Chapter 1
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Where have you ever seen honest money, the money of labor, yield twelve or fourteen per cent?
Other People's Money · Emile Gaboriau · Chapter 1
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O come, come away From labor now reposing, Let busy care a while forbear; O come, come away.
The White Christmas and other Merry · Walter Ben Hare · Chapter 1
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Let it be such that the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest necessity.
Lincoln's Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters · Abraham Lincoln · Chapter 1