Labor, n.
Etymology: [OE. labour, OF. labour, laber, labur, F. labeur, L. labor; cf. Gr. labh to get, seize.]
[Written also labour.]
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.
7 more senses
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. Shak.
6. (Naut.)
The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
7. Etym: [Sp.]
A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to an area of 177 Bartlett.
Syn. -- Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry; painstaking. See Toll.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Labor, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Labored; p. pr. & vb. n. Laboring.]
[Written also labour.]
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.
5. (Naut.)
To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea. Totten.
Labor, v. t.
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. "To labor arms for Troy." Dryden.
3. To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge streas, to labor a point or argument.
4. To belabor; to beat. [Obs.] Dryden.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for labor; he lists it under industry, work.
Where he writes about it:
Labor and pains refer to the exertions of the worker and the tax upon him, while assiduity, perseverance, etc., refer to his continuance in the work. — from industry
Labor is hard and wearying work; toil is straining and exhausting work. — from work
Work is also used for any result of working, physical or mental, and has special senses, as in mechanics, which labor and toil do not share. — from work