Labor — Defs

01 n. Physical toil or bodily exertion, especially when fatiguing, irksome, or unavoidable, in distinction from sportive exercise; hard, muscular…

1.
Physical toil or bodily exertion, especially when fatiguing, irksome, or unavoidable, in distinction from sportive exercise; hard, muscular effort directed to some useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, and like; servile toil; exertion; work.
“God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men Successive.” — Milton.
2.
Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of compiling a history.
3.
That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
“Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.” — Hooker.
4.
Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth.
“The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity; and feared She'll with the labor end.” — Shak.
5.
Any pang or distress.
6.
The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.(Naut.)
7.
A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to an area of 177<frac:1_7/ acres.
8.
A stope or set of stopes.(Mining.) [Sp. Amer.]

Syn. Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry; painstaking. See Toll.

02 v. i. To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to work; to toil.

imp. & p. p. Labored; p. pr. & vb. n. Laboring

1.
To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to work; to toil.
“Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden.” — Milton.
2.
To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any design; to strive; to take pains.
3.
To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard, wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden; to be burdened; -- often with under, and formerly with of.
“The stone that labors up the hill.” — Granville.

“The line too labors, and the words move slow.” — Pope.

“To cure the disorder under which he labored.” — Sir W. Scott.

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” — Matt. xi. 28
4.
To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
5.
To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.(Naut.)

03 v. t. To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil.

1.
To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil.
“The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only labored by children.” — W. Tooke.
2.
To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care.
3.
To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge strenuously; as, to labor a point or argument.
4.
To belabor; to beat.[Obs.]