different between laborious vs labour

English

Alternative forms

• labourious (obsolete)
• laborous (obsolete)
• labourous (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French laborios, from Latin laboriosus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l??b???i?s/
• Rhymes: -???i?s

Adjective

laborious (comparative more laborious, superlative most laborious)

1. Requiring much physical effort; toilsome.
2. Mentally difficult; painstaking.
3. Industrious.

Synonyms

• (requiring effort): painstaking, toilsome, worksome

Derived terms

• laboriously

Related terms

• labor, labour

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• labor (American)

Etymology

From Middle English labouren, from Old French laborer, from Latin laborare (“(intransitive) to labor, strive, exert oneself, suffer, be in distress, (transitive) to work out, elaborate”), from labor (“labor, toil, work, exertion”); perhaps remotely akin to robur (“strength”). Displaced native English swink (“toil, labor”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?le?.b?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?le?.b?/
• Rhymes: -e?b?(?)

Noun

labour (countable and uncountable, plural labours) (British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)

1. Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
2. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     Being a labour of so great difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.

3. (uncountable) Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
4. (uncountable) A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
5. The act of a mother giving birth.
6. The time period during which a mother gives birth.
7. (nautical) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
8. An old measure of land area in Mexico and Texas, approximately 177 acres.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

Usage notes

Like many others ending in -our/-or, this word is spelled labour in the UK and labor in the U.S.; in Canada, labour is preferred, but labor is not unknown. In Australia, labour is the standard spelling, but the Australian Labour Party, founded 1908, "modernised" its spelling to Australian Labor Party in 1912, at the suggestion of American-born King O'Malley, who was a prominent leader in the ALP.

• Adjectives often used with "labour": physical, mental, skilled, technical, organised.

Synonyms

• swink, toil, work

Derived terms

• labour-intensive
• (The act of a mother giving birth): labour pain

Related terms

• laborious
• laboural

Translations

Verb

labour (third-person singular simple present labours, present participle labouring, simple past and past participle laboured) (British spelling, Canadian spelling, Australian spelling, New Zealand spelling)

1. (intransitive) To toil, to work.
2. (transitive) To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).

   I think we've all got the idea. There's no need to labour the point.

3. To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard or wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden.
   • 1726, George Granville, Love

     the stone that labours up the hill
4. To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
5. (nautical) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

Derived terms

• labourer
• labourism
• labourist
• labourite
• labour-saving
• marmalade labour

Related terms

• laboratory

Translations

Further reading

• labour in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• labour in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• labour at OneLook Dictionary Search
• "labour" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 176.

Breton

Noun

labour

1. work, job

French

Etymology

Deverbal of labourer. See also labeur.

Noun

labour m (plural labours)

1. cultivation

Related terms

• labourable
• labourage
• labourer

Further reading

• “labour” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Noun

labour m (oblique plural labours, nominative singular labours, nominative plural labour)

1. (late Anglo-Norman) Alternative spelling of labur

Noun

labour

1. nominative plural of labour