labour

Work people do, especially hard physical work.

• The job involves heavy labour.
• We paid separately for materials and labour.
• Years of manual labour had damaged his back.

Similar words: work, toil

Common phrases: manual labour, hard labour, cost of labour

The people who work, especially those doing physical jobs.

• The farm needs more labour.
• Builders face a shortage of skilled labour.
• The company hired extra labour for the summer.

Similar words: workers, workforce, manpower

Common phrases: skilled labour, labour shortage, cheap labour, organised labour

The process of giving birth, when the mother's body pushes the baby out.

• Her labour began at midnight.
• She went into labour a week early.
• The midwife stayed with her throughout labour.

How to use it: be in labour (She was in labour for six hours.); go into labour (She went into labour during the night.)

Similar words: childbirth

Common phrases: in labour, go into labour, labour pains

A political party that says it represents workers, used as a party name in several countries.

• Labour won the election.
• She voted Labour for the first time.
• The Labour leader spoke about housing costs.

Similar words: Labour Party

Common phrases: Labour Party, Labour government, vote Labour

To work very hard, often for a long time or with difficulty.

• They labour in the fields all day.
• He laboured over dinner for hours.
• We laboured to finish the repairs before dark.

How to use it: labour over something (She laboured over the report all evening.); labour to do something (They laboured to clear the road.)

Similar words: work hard, toil, struggle

Opposites: rest

Common phrases: labour all day, labour over something, labour in fields

To keep explaining or discussing an idea after people already understand it.

• Please don't labour the point.
• He laboured his argument until everyone lost interest.
• There's no need to labour this point further.

Similar words: belabour, dwell on

Common phrases: labour the point, labour an argument