labor

1 a dull, unpleasant, or difficult piece of work one of the labors of Hercules in classical mythology was to clean out the stables of King Augeas Synonyms bear, beast, headache, job, killer, choreRelated Words drudgery, grind, heavy lifting, lucubration; effort, strain, sweat; burden, load, weight; bother, nuisance, troubleNear Antonyms breeze, child's play, cinch, duck soup, kid stuff, setup, snap

2 the active use of energy in producing a result a superhuman amount of labor must have gone into designing and building the pyramids of Egypt Synonyms elbow grease, exertion, expenditure, effort, pains, sweat, trouble, while, workRelated Words drudgery, grind, slog, strain, toil, travail; dint, energy; force, might, muscle, power, puissance; attempt, endeavor, essay, fling, go, pass, shot, stab, trial, try, whackNear Antonyms adroitness, ease, facility, fluency, smoothness; dormancy, idleness, inaction, inactivity, indolence, inertia, languor, laziness, quiescence

3 very hard or unpleasant work a political dissident forced to do six months of hard labor in the salt mines as punishment Synonyms donkeywork, drudge, drudgery, fatigue, grind, toil, moil, slavery, sweat, travailRelated Words spadework; effort, exertion, pains, struggle, trouble; chore, duty, job, obligation, responsibility; routine, tedium, treadmillNear Antonyms decompression, ease, leisure, relaxation, repose, rest; amusement, dalliance, diversion, entertainment, recreation, sport; dormancy, idleness, inactivity, inertia, inertness; dallying, goldbricking, loafing, lolling, loungingAntonyms fun, play

4 the act or process of giving birth to children the mother's labor lasted for six hours Synonyms accouchement, childbearing, delivery, childbirth, parturition, travailRelated Words birth pang, contraction, pains; pregnancy; abortion, miscarriage; cesarean section (or caesarean section), natural childbirth; childbed, confinement, lying-in

5 something produced by physical or intellectual effort a small, personal film that was clearly a labor of love for the director and actors Synonyms affair, fruit, handiwork, product, output, produce, production, thing, work, yieldRelated Words article, commodity, entry, object; goods, line, merchandise, wares; handcraft, handicraft; aftereffect, aftermath, conclusion, consequence, corollary, development, effect, issue, outcome, result, resultant, sequel, sequence, upshot; by-product, derivative, offshoot, offspring, outgrowth, residual, side effect (also side reaction), spin-off