Labour vs Working - What's the difference?
labour | working |
Effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.
* 1719, (Daniel Defoe), (Robinson Crusoe)
That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort.
* (Richard Hooker) (1554-1600)
(uncountable) Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour.
*, chapter=22
, title= (uncountable) A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour.
The act of a mother giving birth.
The time period during which a mother gives birth.
(nautical) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.
An old measure of land area in Mexico and Texas, approximately 177 acres.
To toil, to work.
To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc).
To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard or wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden.
* Granville
* Alexander Pope
* Sir Walter Scott
To suffer the pangs of childbirth.
(nautical) To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
(usually plural) Operation; action.
Method of operation.
Fermentation.
(of bodies of water) Becoming full of a vegetable substance.
That is or are functioning.
That suffices but requires additional work.
In paid employment.
Of or relating to employment.
Enough to allow one to use something.
As a proper noun labour
is (short for) the labour party.As a noun working is
(usually plural) operation; action.As a verb working is
.As an adjective working is
that is or are functioning.labour
English
Alternative forms
* labor (US)Noun
(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada)- Being a labour of so great a difficulty, the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.}}
- (Bartlett)
Usage notes
Like many other words ending in -our''/''-or'', this word is spelled ''labour'' in the UK and ''labor'' in the U.S.; in Canada, ''labour'' is preferred, but ''labor'' is not unknown. In Australia, where ''labour'' is the usual spelling, ''labor'' is nonetheless used in the name of the , reflecting the fact that the ''-or endings had some currency in Australia in the past. * Adjectives often used with "labour": physical, mental, technical, organised.Synonyms
*Derived terms
* (The act of a mother giving birth) labour painVerb
(en-verb) (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada)- I think we've all got the idea. There's no need to labour the point.
- the stone that labours up the hill
- The line too labours , and the words move slow.
- to cure the disorder under which he laboured
- (Totten)
External links
* * * ----working
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) werking, werkynge, warkynge, worchinge, from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) wirking, warking, (etyl) werking, (etyl) Wirkung.Noun
(en noun)Etymology 2
From .Verb
(head)- Leave him alone; he's working .
Adjective
(-)- a working ventilator
- a working copy of the script
- working mothers
- the working week
- a working knowledge of computers