Meaning of labour In English

• 0 practical work, especially when it involves hard physical effort:

  • The car parts themselves are not expensive, it's the labour that costs the money.

  • manual labour (= hard work using the hands)

  • skilled/unskilled labour

  • Are you tired after your labours?

  • West was paid very little for his labours.

  • Retirement is the time to enjoy the fruits of your labours.

• 1 the last stage of pregnancy from the time when the muscles of the womb start to push the baby out of the body until the baby appears:

  • labour pains

  • She went into (= started) labour at twelve o'clock last night.

  • I was in labour for twelve hours with my first baby.

  • No two labours are ever the same.

• 2 to do hard physical work:

  • He travelled around Europe labouring to pay his way.

  • [ + to infinitive ] Three hours after the explosion, rescue teams were still labouring to free those trapped.

  • He laboured up the hill with his heavy load.

  • She's been labouring over the same article for days.

• 3 the Labour Party, the political party in Great Britain that believes in social equality, a more equal sharing out of wealth, and the rights of workers:

  • Labour are sure to get in at the next election.

  • I voted Labour in the last election.

• 4 belonging or relating to the Labour Party:

  • the Labour Party

  • Labour voters

  • the Labour candidate

• 5 practical work, especially involving physical effort:

  • The cost will depend on the amount of labour involved.

  • They gave us an estimated price including parts and labour.

  • The shorts sell for $45, but the hard labor of the women who made them cost just 50 cents.

  • Most jobs these days aren't exhausting manual labour.

• 6 workers in a company or a country, especially people who do practical work with their hands:

  • skilled/unskilled labour Foreign workers were brought in to fill a temporary shortfall in skilled labor.

  • We use casual labour during busy periods.

  • cheap/local/temporary labour

  • More companies are building plants abroad to take advantage of cheaper labor costs.

  • labour disputes/shortages/standards

• 7 to stop working as a way of complaining about or trying to change something, such as pay or working conditions:

  • The pilots have chosen to withdraw their labour at a crucial time in the airline's history.