La·bor, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Labored p. pr. & vb. n. Laboring.] [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; to be in labor.
5. Naut. To pitch or roll heavily, as a ship in a turbulent sea.
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.
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.
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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]