labours

Noun

labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours)

1. An effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
   • […]So I ſet myſelf to enlarge my Cave and Works farther into the Earth; for it was a looſe ſandy Rock, which yielded eaſily to the Labour I beſtowed on it[…]1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 78
2. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
   • Being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
3. (uncountable) Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
   • In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 364–365
4. (uncountable) A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
5. The act or process of a mother giving birth.
   • Near-synonyms: childbirth, parturition

   Synonyms:

   childbirth, parturition

6. The time period during which a mother gives birth.

See all 14 meanings of labour