labor
(British labour)
https://gyazo.com/e33d49975f512d72733dbccb42ceead9
source: Smashin' It | KonoSuba | Know Your Meme
/icons/point.icon 仕事
work: Uで「仕事･労働」を表す最も一般的な語. 肉体的作業･精神的作業のいずれにも用いる
job, task: 抽象概念もさすworkと比べ, jobとtaskは共にCで具体的なやるべき仕事をさす
〘話〙 ではjobが, 〘書〙 ではtaskが好まれる
task: 通例課せられた困難な作業を言う
labor: 肉体的につらい労働を表す
/icons/point.icon WORK, LABOR, TRAVAIL, TOIL, DRUDGERY, GRIND mean activity involving effort or exertion.
WORK may imply activity of body, of mind, of a machine, or of a natural force.
e.g. too tired to do any work
LABOR applies to physical or intellectual work involving great and often strenuous exertion.
e.g. farmers demanding fair compensation for their labor
TRAVAIL is bookish for labor involving pain or suffering.
e.g. years of travail were lost when the house burned
TOIL implies prolonged and fatiguing labor.
e.g. his lot would be years of back-breaking toil
DRUDGERY suggests dull and irksome labor.
e.g. an editorial job with a good deal of drudgery
GRIND implies labor exhausting to mind or body.
e.g. the grind of the assembly line
noun
1. work, especially hard physical work:
(主に肉体的な)労働, 働き; 骨折り, 苦心
e.g. the price of repairs includes labor and parts
e.g. manual labor.
workers, especially manual workers, considered collectively:
(資本に対して)労働; 〖集合的に〗(資本家･経営者に対して)労働者; 〖集合的に〗(知的職業従事者に対して)肉体労働者
e.g. nonunion casual labor.
manual workers considered as a social class or political force:
e.g. as modifier : the labor movement.
(Labor) a department of government concerned with a nation's workforce:
e.g. Secretary of Labor.
2. (Labour) treated as singular or plural (in the UK or Canada) the Labour Party:
e.g. as modifier : the Labour leader.
3. the process of childbirth, especially the period from the start of uterine contractions to delivery:
〘医〙 産みの苦しみ, 陣痛; ｟比喩的に｠ 苦しみ, 苦悩; 〖a ～〗 出産にかかる時間
e.g. his wife is in labor.
verb no object
1. work hard; make great effort:
«…しようとして/…を得ようと» 努力する, 骨を折る(away) «to do/for, after»
e.g. they labored from dawn to dusk
e.g. she was patiently laboring over her sketchbooks.
work at an unskilled manual occupation:
«…で/…に» (精を出して)働く, 労働する «in/on, over, at»
e.g. he was eking out an existence by laboring.
with object archaic till (the ground):
e.g. the land belonged to him who labored it.
2. have difficulty in doing something despite working hard:
e.g. Coley labored against confident opponents.
with adverbial of direction move or proceed with difficulty:
〖～＋副詞〗 〈乗り物･人などが〉骨折って進む (!〖副詞〗は方向･場所などの表現)
e.g. they labored up a steep, tortuous track.
(of an engine) work noisily and with difficulty:
〈エンジンが〉あえぐ
e.g. the wheels churned, the engine laboring.
(of a ship) roll or pitch heavily:
e.g. the seas ran high, and the ship labored hard.
3. (of a woman in childbirth) be in labor:
出産の苦しみをする
e.g. she labored very well and comfortably because she was relaxed.
PHRASES
a labor of Hercules
see Hercules.
a labor of love
a task done for pleasure, not reward:
e.g. he spent eight years rebuilding the house—a labor of love.
labor the point
explain or discuss something at excessive or unnecessary length.
PHRASAL VERBS
labor under
1. carry (a heavy load or object) with difficulty.
2. be deceived or misled by (a mistaken belief):
e.g. you've been laboring under a misapprehension.
ORIGIN
Middle English: from Old French labour (noun), labourer (verb), both from Latin labor ‘toil, trouble’.