laborer

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la·bor

(lā′bər)

1. Physical or mental exertion, especially when difficult or exhausting; work. See Synonyms at work.

2. A specific task or effort, especially a painful or arduous one: "Eating the bread was a labor I put myself through to quiet my stomach" (Gail Anderson-Dargatz).

3. A particular form of work or method of working: manual labor.

4. Work for wages: businesses paying more for labor.

a. Workers considered as a group.

b. The trade union movement, especially its officials.

6. Labor A political party representing workers' interests, especially in Great Britain.

7. The process by which childbirth occurs, beginning with contractions of the uterus and ending with the expulsion of the fetus or infant and the placenta.

v. la·bored, la·bor·ing, la·bors

v.intr.

1. To work; toil: labored in the fields.

2. To strive painstakingly: labored over the needlepoint.

a. To proceed with great effort; plod: labored up the hill.

b. Nautical To pitch and roll.

4. To suffer from distress or a disadvantage: labored under the misconception that others were cooperating.

5. To undergo the labor of childbirth.

v.tr.

1. To deal with in exhaustive or excessive detail; belabor: labor a point in the argument.

2. To distress; burden: I will not labor you with trivial matters.

adj.

1. Of or relating to labor.

2. Labor Of or relating to a Labor Party.

[Middle English, from Old French labour, from Latin labor.]

la′bor·er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun

laborer - someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor

labourer, manual laborer, jack

agricultural laborer, agricultural labourer - a person who tills the soil for a living

bracero - a Mexican laborer who worked in the United States on farms and railroads in order to ease labor shortages during World War II

cleaner - someone whose occupation is cleaning

day laborer, day labourer - a laborer who works by the day; for daily wages

digger - a laborer who digs

dishwasher - someone who washes dishes

navvy, peon, drudge, galley slave - a laborer who is obliged to do menial work

gandy dancer - a laborer in a railroad maintenance gang

gravedigger - a person who earns a living by digging graves

hewer - a person who hews

hired hand, hired man, hand - a hired laborer on a farm or ranch; "the hired hand fixed the railing"; "a ranch hand"

hod carrier, hodman - a laborer who carries supplies to masons or bricklayers

gipsy, itinerant - a laborer who moves from place to place as demanded by employment; "itinerant traders"

faller, feller, logger, lumberjack, lumberman - a person who fells trees

miner, mineworker - laborer who works in a mine

mule driver, mule skinner, muleteer, skinner - a worker who drives mules

platelayer, tracklayer - a workman who lays and repairs railroad tracks

porter - a person employed to carry luggage and supplies

rail-splitter, splitter - a laborer who splits logs to build split-rail fences

sawyer - one who is employed to saw wood

section hand - a laborer assigned to a section gang

sprayer - a worker who applies spray to a surface

stacker - a laborer who builds up a stack or pile

steeplejack - someone who builds or maintains very tall structures

dock worker, docker, dockhand, dock-walloper, dockworker, loader, longshoreman, lumper, stevedore - a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port

fireman, stoker - a laborer who tends fires (as on a coal-fired train or steamship)

woodcutter - cuts down trees and chops wood as a job

working man, working person, workingman, workman - an employee who performs manual or industrial labor

wrecker - someone who demolishes or dismantles buildings as a job

yardman - a laborer hired to do outdoor work (such as mowing lawns)

laborer

noun

One who labors:

hand, operative, roustabout, worker, working girl, workingman, workingwoman, workman, workwoman.

Translations

عَامِلٌ

dělník

arbejder

Arbeiter

χειρωνακτικός εργάτης

jornalero obrero trabajador

työläinen

travailleur manuel

radnikradnica

operaio

労働者

노동자

arbeider

robotnik

trabalhador trabalhador braçal

рабочий

delavec

arbetare

กรรมกร

işçi

người lao động

劳工

laborer

→ عَامِلٌ dělník arbejder Arbeiter χειρωνακτικός εργάτης jornalero työläinen travailleur manuel radnik operaio 労働者 노동자 arbeider arbeider robotnik trabalhador, trabalhador braçal рабочий arbetare กรรมกร işçi người lao động 劳工

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References in classic literature ?

The modern laborer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the progress of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class.

Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to association.

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"Besides, if it comes to the cropping of ears, there are other folk who may say their say," quoth the third laborer. "We are all freemen, and I trow that a yeoman's cudgel is as good as a forester's knife.

Next to him sat Hordle John, and beside him three other rough unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair-free laborers from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the heart of the royal demesne.

"A proper spirit, my fair son!" said one of the free laborers. "I would that all men were of thy way of thinking."

"This is a lad of mettle!" shouted another of the laborers. He dares to give tongue to what all men think.

"Nay, but you will so," said one of the laborers. "Hi, Dame Eliza, bring a stoup of your best to Will to clear his throat.

Both the foresters and the laborers had risen from their bench, and Dame Eliza and the travelling doctor had flung themselves between the two parties with soft words and soothing gestures, when the door of the "Pied Merlin" was flung violently open, and the attention of the company was drawn from their own quarrel to the new-comer who had burst so unceremoniously upon them.

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In addition to his farming, which called for special attention in spring, and in addition to reading, Levin had begun that winter a work on agriculture, the plan of which turned on taking into account the character of the laborer on the land as one of the unalterable data of the question, like the climate and the soil, and consequently deducing all the principles of scientific culture, not simply from the data of soil and climate, but from the data of soil, climate, and a certain unalterable character of the laborer.

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Of course, we elder ones would not have any of that nonsense, and let him know that in the school and the playground farmers' sons and laborers' sons were all alike.

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BAHAWALPUR -- One laborer was killed and four others injured as roof of an under-construction building collapsed on Yazman road, allegedly due to negligence of the owner and the contractor.