Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Labor \La"bor\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Labored}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Laboring}.] [OE. labouren, F. labourer, L. laborare. See
{Labor}, n.] [Written also {labour}.]
1. To exert muscular strength; to exert one's strength with
painful effort, particularly in servile occupations; to
work; to toil.
Adam, well may we labor still to dress This garden.
--Milton.
2. To exert one's powers of mind in the prosecution of any
design; to strive; to take pains.
3. To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's
work under conditions which make it especially hard,
wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under
a burden; to be burdened; -- often with under, and
formerly with of.
The stone that labors up the hill. --Granville.
The line too labors,and the words move slow. --Pope.
To cure the disorder under which he labored. --Sir
W. Scott.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. --Matt. xi. 28
4. To be in travail; to suffer the pangs of childbirth.
5. (Naut.) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent
sea. -- Totten.
Laboring \La"bor*ing\, a.
1. That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse,
heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor;
as, laboring days.
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet. --eccl. v. 12.
2. Suffering pain or grief. --Pope.
{Laboring oar}, the oar which requires most strength and
exertion; often used figuratively; as, to have, or pull,
the laboring oar in some difficult undertaking.
Source : WordNet®
laboring
adj : doing arduous or unpleasant work; "drudging peasants"; "the
bent backs of laboring slaves picking cotton"; "toiling
coal miners in the black deeps" [syn: {drudging}, {labouring},
{toiling}]