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

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

1. A progressive centre-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], Labor [US]

Derived forms: laboured, labouring, labours

Type of: birth, birthing, class, 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, gravidation [archaic], gravidity [technical], maternity, pregnancy

Encyclopedia: Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block