\La"bor\, n. [OE. labour, OF. labour, laber, labur, F.
labeur, L. labor; cf. Gr. lamba`nein to take, Skr. labh to
get, seize.] [Written also {labour}.]
1. Physical toil or bodily exertion, especially when
   fatiguing, irksome, or unavoidable, in distinction from
   sportive exercise; hard, muscular effort directed to some
   useful end, as agriculture, manufactures, and like;
   servile toil; exertion; work.
         God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to
         men Successive.                       --Milton.
2. Intellectual exertion; mental effort; as, the labor of
   compiling a history.
3. That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that
   which demands effort.
         Being a labor of so great a difficulty, the exact
         performance thereof we may rather wish than look
         for.                                  --Hooker.
4. Travail; the pangs and efforts of childbirth.
         The queen's in labor, They say, in great extremity;
         and feared She'll with the labor end. --Shak.
5. Any pang or distress. --Shak.
6. (Naut.) The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results
   in the straining of timbers and rigging.
7. [Sp.] A measure of land in Mexico and Texas, equivalent to
   an area of 1771/7 acres. --Bartlett.
Syn: Work; toil; drudgery; task; exertion; effort; industry;
     painstaking. See {Toll}.

\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.

\La"bor\, v. t. [F. labourer, L. laborare.]
1. To work at; to work; to till; to cultivate by toil.
         The most excellent lands are lying fallow, or only
         labored by children.                  --W. Tooke.
2. To form or fabricate with toil, exertion, or care. ``To
   labor arms for Troy.'' --Dryden.
3. To prosecute, or perfect, with effort; to urge
   stre?uously; as, to labor a point or argument.
4. To belabor; to beat. [Obs.] --Dryden.

\La"bor\, n. (Mining.)
A store or set of stopes. [Sp. Amer.]