different between labour vs strain

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

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?e??n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English str?on, ?estr?on (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *streun? (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English str?nd (“race; stock”), from str?onan, str?nan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).

Noun

strain (plural strains)

1. (archaic) Race; lineage, pedigree.
2. (biology) A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
3. (figuratively) Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.

   Synonyms: propensity, proneness

   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Advantages of Religion to Societies

     Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which being propogated, spoil the strain of a nation.

4. (music, poetry) Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.

   Synonyms: theme, motive, manner, style

5. Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

6. (rare) A kind or sort (of person etc.).
7. (obsolete) Treasure.
8. (obsolete) The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.

Translations

Related terms

• strew

Etymology 2

From Middle English straynen, streinen, streynen, from Old French estreindre (whence French étreindre (“to grip”)), from Latin stringere (“to draw tight together, to tie”).

Verb

strain (third-person singular simple present strains, present participle straining, simple past and past participle strained)

1. (obsolete) To hold tightly, to clasp.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     So hauing said, her twixt her armes twaine / She straightly straynd, and colled tenderly [...].

   • Evander with a close embrace / Strained his departing friend.

   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds

     "Farewell!"—the mother strained her child to her heart again, and again put her from her, to embrace her more closely.

2. To apply a force or forces to by stretching out.

   to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship

   Relations between the United States and Guatemala traditionally have been close, although at times strained by human rights and civil/military issues.

3. To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force.

   The gale strained the timbers of the ship.

4. To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
5. To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable.

   Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.

   • They strain their warbling throats / To welcome in the spring.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Thus my plight was evil indeed, for I had nothing now to burn to give me light, and knew that 'twas no use setting to grout till I could see to go about it. Moreover, the darkness was of that black kind that is never found beneath the open sky, no, not even on the darkest night, but lurks in close and covered places and strains the eyes in trying to see into it.

6. To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning.

   to strain the law in order to convict an accused person

   • 1724, Jonathan Swift, Drapier's Letters, 4

     There can be no other meaning in this expression, however some may pretend to strain it.

7. (transitive) To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander
8. (intransitive) To percolate; to be filtered.

   water straining through a sandy soil

9. To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
   • 1641, John Denham, The Sophy

     [He] Still talks and plays with Fatima, but his mirth / Is forc'd and strained.
10. To urge with importunity; to press.

    to strain a petition or invitation
11. (transitive) hug somebody; to hold somebody tightly.

Derived terms

• strain every nerve

Translations

Noun

strain (countable and uncountable, plural strains)

1. The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
   • 1832, Charles Stewart Drewry (A.M.I.C.E.), A memoir on suspension bridges, page 183:

     If the Menai Bridge, for instance, were loaded at that rate, the entire strain on the main chains would be about 2000 tons ; while the chains containing 260 square inches of iron would bear, at 9 tons per square inch, 2340 tons, without stretching  ...

   • 2004, Sanjay Shrivastava, Medical Device Materials: Proceedings from the Materials & Processes for Medical Devices Conference 2003, 8-10 September 2003, Anaheim, California, ASM International (?ISBN), page 176:

     Therefore, the goal of this study is to assess the influence of strain on the corrosion resistance of passivated Nitinol and stainless steel implant materials. Materials and Methods Nitinol (50.8%at. Ni) wire (NDC, Fremont, CA) and 316L stainless ...

2. A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles.

3. An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain.
4. (uncountable, engineering) A dimensionless measure of object deformation either referring to engineering strain or true strain.
5. (obsolete) The track of a deer.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 145:

     When they have shot a Deere by land, they follow him like bloud-hounds by the bloud, and straine, and oftentimes so take them.

Derived terms

• breaking strain

Translations

Related terms

• stress
• strict
• stringent

Etymology 3

From Middle English strenen (“to beget, father, procreate”), from Old English str?onan, str?enan, str?nan (“to beget, generate, gain, acquire”), from Proto-Germanic *striunijan? (“to furnish, decorate, acquire”).

Verb

strain (third-person singular simple present strains, present participle straining, simple past and past participle strained)

1. (obsolete) To beget, generate (of light), engender, copulate (both of animals and humans), lie with, be born, come into the world.

Anagrams

• Sartin, Tarins, Trains, atrins, instar, santir, sartin, starin', tairns, tarins, trains