Home Synonyms labour

Synonyms of labour in English:

labour


See UK English definition of labour

noun

1‘the aristocratic disdain for manual labour’

SYNONYMS
work, toil, employment, exertion, industry, industriousness, toiling, hard work, hard labour, drudgery, effort, the sweat of one's brow, donkey work, menial work
informal slog, grind, sweat, elbow grease
British informal graft
archaic travail, moil
ANTONYMS

rest, leisure, ease, idleness

2‘the conflict of interest between capital and labour’

SYNONYMS
workers, employees, workmen, workforce, staff, working people, blue-collar workers, hands, labourers, labour force, hired hands, proletariat, wage-earners, manpower, human resources, personnel
humorous liveware
ANTONYMS

management

3‘the labours of Hercules’

SYNONYMS
task, job, chore, undertaking, mission, commission, assignment

4‘Gina had a long and difficult labour’

SYNONYMS
childbirth, birth, birthing, delivery, nativity
contractions, labour pains, labour pangs, labour throes
technical parturition
archaic confinement, accouchement, lying-in, childbed, travail

verb

1‘a project on which he had laboured for many years’

SYNONYMS
work, work hard, toil, slave, slave away, grub away, plod away, grind away, sweat away, struggle, strive, exert oneself, overwork, work one's fingers to the bone, work like a dog, work like a slave, work like a Trojan, keep one's nose to the grindstone
informal slog away, kill oneself, plug away, put one's back into something, peg away
British informal graft
archaic drudge, travail, moil
ANTONYMS

rest, relax, laze

2‘Newcastle laboured to break down the home team's defence’

SYNONYMS
strive, struggle, endeavour, work, try hard, make every effort, do one's best, do one's utmost, do all one can, give one's all, give it one's all, give something one's all, go all out, fight, push, be at pains, put oneself out, apply oneself, exert oneself
informal bend over backwards, fall over backwards, lean over backwards, give it one's best shot, pull out all the stops

3‘enough has been said, and there is no need to labour the point’

SYNONYMS
overemphasize, belabour, overstress, lay too much emphasis on, place too much emphasis on, overdo, strain, over-elaborate, overplay, attach too much importance to, attach too much weight to, make too much of, exaggerate, dwell on, harp on, harp on about, expound on, expand

4‘Rex was labouring under a misapprehension’

SYNONYMS
suffer from, be a victim of, be burdened by, be overburdened by, be disadvantaged by, be under