different between labour vs trouble

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

Etymology

Verb is from Middle English troublen, trublen, turblen, troblen, borrowed from Old French troubler, trobler, trubler, metathetic variants of tourbler, torbler, turbler, from Vulgar Latin *turbul?re, from Latin turbula (“disorderly group, a little crowd or people”), diminutive of turba (“stir; crowd”). The noun is from Middle English truble, troble, from Old French troble, from the verb.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tr?b??l; IPA^(key): /?t??b(?)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??b(?)l/, /?t??-/
• Rhymes: -?b?l
• Hyphenation: trou?ble

Noun

trouble (countable and uncountable, plural troubles)

1. A distressing or dangerous situation.

2. A difficulty, problem, condition, or action contributing to such a situation.

3. A violent occurrence or event.

4. Efforts taken or expended, typically beyond the normal required.
   • 1850, William Cullen Bryant, Letters of a Traveller

     She never took the trouble to close them.

   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

     Indeed, by the report of our elders, this nervous preparation for old age is only trouble thrown away.

5. A malfunction.

6. Liability to punishment; conflict with authority.

7. (mining) A fault or interruption in a stratum.
8. (Cockney rhyming slang) Wife. Clipping of trouble and strife.

Usage notes

• Verbs often used with "trouble": make, spell, stir up, ask for, etc.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:difficult situation

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take for uses and meaning of trouble collocated with these words.

Verb

trouble (third-person singular simple present troubles, present participle troubling, simple past and past participle troubled)

1. (transitive, now rare) To disturb, stir up, agitate (a medium, especially water).
2. (transitive) To mentally distress; to cause (someone) to be anxious or perplexed.

   What she said about narcissism is troubling me.
3. (transitive) In weaker sense: to bother or inconvenience.

   I will not trouble you to deliver the letter.

4. (reflexive or intransitive) To take pains to do something.

   I won't trouble to post the letter today; I can do it tomorrow.

5. (intransitive) To worry; to be anxious.
   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.26:

     Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain.

Related terms

• turbid
• turbulent

Translations

Further reading

• trouble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• trouble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -buterol, Boulter, boulter

French

Etymology 1

Deverbal of troubler or from Old French troble.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?ubl/

Noun

trouble m (plural troubles)

1. trouble
2. (medicine) disorder

Derived terms

• trouble de la personnalité
• trouble obsessionnel compulsif

Verb

trouble

1. first-person singular present indicative of troubler
2. third-person singular present indicative of troubler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of troubler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of troubler
5. second-person singular imperative of troubler

Etymology 2

From Old French troble, probably from a Vulgar Latin *turbulus (with metathesis), itself perhaps an alteration of Latin turbidus with influence from turbulentus; cf. also turbula. Compare Catalan tèrbol, Romanian tulbure.

Adjective

trouble (plural troubles)

1. (of a liquid) murky, turbid, muddy, thick, clouded, cloudy; not clear

Derived terms

• pêcher en eau trouble

Further reading

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