Labor
/'leibə/ Cách viết khác : (labor) /'leibə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- Work, especially physical work: The exertion of physical or mental effort to perform a task, often for wages.
- The body of workers: The people who do physical work, considered as a social or economic class.
- The process of childbirth: The period and process of contractions and effort leading to the birth of a child.
- A task or undertaking: A specific piece of work, often difficult or requiring great effort.
- An organized workers' movement: A group or political party representing the interests of workers.
Verb:
- To work hard: To exert oneself physically or mentally, especially with great effort or difficulty.
- To move with difficulty: To proceed slowly or with great effort.
- To be troubled by something: To suffer under or be burdened by a problem, belief, or condition.
- To develop or discuss in excessive detail: To treat a subject at unnecessary length.
Examples of Usage
Noun:
- The construction project required a great deal of manual labor.
- The new policy aims to protect the rights of labor.
- She was in labor for several hours before the baby was born.
- Writing the book was a true labor of love.
Verb:
- He labored all day in the hot sun.
- The old truck labored up the steep hill.
- She labored under the mistaken belief that she was to blame.
- There's no need to labor the point; we all understand.
Advanced Usage
"a labor of love": A task done for pleasure, not for reward or payment.
- Restoring the classic car was a labor of love for him.
"lost labor": Effort that is wasted or produces no result.
- Trying to convince him was lost labor; he never changes his mind.
"to be in labor": To be in the process of giving birth.
- She was rushed to the hospital after she went into labor.
Variants and Related Words
Laborer (n): A person who does physical work, especially for wages.
- The laborers began work at dawn.
Laborious (adj): Requiring considerable time and effort.
- The laborious task took weeks to complete.
Labor-intensive (adj): Requiring a large amount of labor relative to capital.
- Farming is often a labor-intensive industry.
Synonyms
- Work: General activity involving effort.
- Toil: Exhausting physical labor.
- Effort: The use of physical or mental energy.
- Workforce: The body of people available for work.
Related Phrasal Verbs
Labor under: To suffer from a mistaken belief or disadvantage.
- He has been laboring under the illusion that the job was his.
Labor over: To work on something slowly and with great care.
- She labored over the letter for hours.
Related Idioms
Fruit of one's labor: The positive results or rewards from hard work.
- After years of study, she finally enjoyed the fruit of her labor with a successful career.
Hard labor: Punitive physical work, often as a judicial sentence.
- The convict was sentenced to ten years of hard labor.
Noun
- any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
- he prepared for great undertakings
- the federal department responsible for promoting the working conditions of wage earners in the United States; created in 1913
- a political party formed in Great Britain in 1900; characterized by the promotion of labor's interests and formerly the socialization of key industries
- an organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement
- concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child
- she was in labor for six hours
- productive work (especially physical work done for wages)
- his labor did not require a great deal of skill
- a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
- there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field
Verb
- undergo the efforts of childbirth
- work hard
- She was digging away at her math homework
- Lexicographers drudge all day long
- strive and make an effort to reach a goal
- She tugged for years to make a decent living
- We have to push a little to make the deadline!
- She is driving away at her doctoral thesis