labour

labour¹ W1S3 n BrE labor AmE

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1¦(work)¦

2¦(workers)¦

3¦(baby)¦

4 a labour of love

5 somebody's labours

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1.) ¦(WORK)¦[U]

work, especially physical work

▪ The garage charges £30 an hour for labour.

▪ Many women do hard manual labour (=work with their hands) .

▪ Workers withdrew their labour (=protested by stopping work) for twenty-four hours.

→↑hard labour

2.) ¦(WORKERS)¦[U]

all the people who work for a company or in a country

▪ a shortage of skilled labor

▪ Wages for unskilled labour are very low.

▪ small commercial farmers who depend on a casual labour supply

▪ These countries are a source of cheap labour .

▪ the use of child labour

▪ produce grown by slave labor

▪ We need to reduce our labour costs .

▪ Labour shortages have forced the Japanese into making heavy use of industrial robots.

▪ the changing role of mothers in the labour market

→↑labour force, ↑labour market

3.) ¦(BABY)¦ [singular, U]

the process of giving birth to a baby

in labour

▪ Meg was in labour for ten hours.

▪ Diane went into labour at 2 o'clock.

a long/short/difficult labour

▪ The labour pains were unbearable.

labour ward/room

(=a room in a hospital where women give birth)

4.) a labour of love

something that is hard work but that you do because you want to

5.) sb's labours

formal a period of hard work

▪ After several hours gardening we sat down to admire the results of our labours.

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COLLOCATES for sense 2

skilled labour (=workers who have special skills)

unskilled labour (=workers who have no special skills)

casual labour (=workers who do jobs that are not permanent)

cheap labour

child labour

slave labour

labour costs

labour shortage

labour market (=all the people available to work)

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labour ²

labour² BrE labor AmE v [I]

1.) to work hard

▪ They laboured all day in the mills.

labour over

▪ I've been labouring over this report all morning.

labour to do sth

▪ Ray had little talent but labored to acquire the skills of a writer.

2.) labour under a delusion/misconception/misapprehension etc

to believe something that is not true

▪ She had laboured under the misconception that Bella liked her.

3.) labour the point

to describe or explain something in too much detail or when people have already understood it

4.) [always + adverb/preposition]

to move slowly and with difficulty

▪ I could see the bus labouring up the steep, windy road.