- [uncountable] work, especially physical work
- manual labour (= work using your hands)
- The price will include the labour and materials.
- The company wants to keep down labour costs.
- The workers voted to withdraw their labour (= to stop work as a means of protest).
Extra ExamplesTopics Businessb2- The miners are threatening to withdraw their labour.
- These women were generally accustomed to hard manual labour.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- manual
- physical
- back-breaking
- …
- withdraw
- productivity
- camp
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- [countable, usually plural] (formal) a task or period of work
- He was so exhausted from the day's labours that he went straight to bed.
- People look forward to enjoying the fruits of their labours during retirement.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- manual
- physical
- back-breaking
- …
- withdraw
- productivity
- camp
- [uncountable] the people who work or are available for work in a country or company
- forced/slave labour
- a shortage of labour
- Companies are making huge profits by exploiting cheap labour in poor countries.
- There is a growing demand for skilled labour.
- New labour laws make it more difficult for employers to sack workers.
- good labour relations (= the relationship between workers and employers)
WordfinderWordfinderExtra ExamplesTopics Working lifeb2- The sector is reliant on migrant labour.
- Repairs involve skilled labour, which can be expensive.
- tensions between the labour movement and government
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- free
- organized
- wage
- …
- force
- market
- pool
- …
- [uncountable, countable, usually singular] the period of time or the process of giving birth to a baby
- in labour Jane was in labour for ten hours.
- She went into labour early.
- labour pains
- It was a difficult labour.
WordfinderExtra ExamplesTopics Life stagesc2- Older women tend to have more difficult labours.
- She went into labour two weeks early.
- The baby was born after a long labour.
- women at risk of preterm labour
- Labour was induced when the baby was ten days overdue.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- difficult
- easy
- long
- …
- go into
- induce
- room
- ward
- pains
- …
- in labour
- Labour[uncountable + singular or plural verb](abbreviation Lab.)the British Labour Party
- He always votes Labour.
- Labour was/were in power for many years.
work
people who work
having baby
politics
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French labour (noun), labourer (verb), both from Latin labor ‘toil, trouble’.
Idioms
See labour in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englisha labour of love
- a hard task that you do because you want to, not because it is necessary
- Writing the book was a labour of love.
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labour