Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - labour

labour ~1 BrE, labor AmE n 1 »WORK« effort or work, especially physical work  (The garage charges -30 an hour for labour. | manual labour (=work with tools you hold in your hands))  (Building still involves a lot of manual labour. | withdraw your labour (=protest by stopping work))  (Workers withdrew their labour for twenty-four hours.)  (- see also hard labour) 2 »WORKERS« all the people who work for a company or in a country  (Organized labour banded together to fight the anti-union laws. | skilled/unskilled labour)  (a shortage of skilled labor | cheap labour (=people who are paid very low wages) | labour costs/shortages etc)  (Immigrants may help to solve labour shortages.)  (- see also labour force) 3 »BABY« the process in which a baby is born by being pushed from its mother's body, or the period of time during which this happens  (be in labour)  (Meg was in labour for 6 hours. | go into labour)  (Diane went into labour at 2 o'clock. | labour pains/ward/room)  (No men were allowed in the labour room.) 4 a labour of love something that is hard work but that you do because you want to 5 my/your labours formal a period of hard work  (We sat down to rest after our labours.) ~2 adj supporting or connected with the British labour party  (a Labour MP | Labour policies) ~2 BrE labor AmE v 1 to try very hard to do something; struggle + over  (I've been labouring over this report all morning.) labour to do sth  (Ray had little talent but labored to acquire the skills of a writer.) 2 to work hard  (Marina had laboured late into the night to finish her essay.) 3 labour under a delusion/misconception/misapprehension etc to believe something that is not true 4 labour the point to describe or explain something in too much detail or when people have already understood it 5 if an engine labours it turns too slowly and with difficulty