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1. Productive work (especially physical work done for wages)
   "his labor did not require a great deal of skill";
   - labour [Brit, Cdn], toil
    
2. A social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages
   "there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field";
   - labour [Brit, Cdn], working class, proletariat, proletariate [archaic]
    
3. Concluding state of pregnancy; from the onset of contractions to the birth of a child
   "she was in labor for six hours";
   - parturiency, labour [Brit, Cdn], confinement, lying-in, travail [literary], childbed [archaic]
    
4. An organized attempt by workers to improve their status by united action (particularly via labor unions) or the leaders of this movement
   - labor movement [US, Austral], trade union movement, labour movement [Brit, Cdn], labour [Brit, Cdn]
    
5. Any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
   "he prepared for great labors";
   - undertaking, project, task, labour [Brit, Cdn]

1. Strive and make an effort to reach a goal
   "She labored for years to make a decent living";
   - tug, labour [Brit, Cdn], push, drive, plow [US], plough on [Brit], plow on [US], plough [Brit], sweat
    
2. Work hard
   "Lexicographers labor all day long";
   - labour [Brit, Cdn], toil, fag [informal], travail [literary], grind [informal], drudge, dig [US, informal], moil [N. Amer]
    
3. Undergo the efforts of childbirth
   - labour [Brit, Cdn]

1. A progressive center-left or socialist political party founded in Great Britain in 1900, one of the two largest parties in Parliament since the 1920s
   - British Labour Party, Labour Party [UK], Labour [UK]
    
2. The federal department responsible for promoting the working conditions of wage earners in the United States; created in 1913
   - Department of Labor, Labor Department, DoL

Derived forms: labored, laboring, labors, Labors

Type of: birth, birthing, class, do work, executive department, experience, fight, giving birth, have, labor party [US], labour party [Brit, Cdn], parturition, party, political party, reform movement, social class, socio-economic class, stratum, struggle, undergo, work

Part of: gestation, maternity, pregnancy

Encyclopedia: Labor, induced