labor at

labor at (something)

To work very hard or diligently to accomplish something. I've been laboring at my Ph.D. for nearly four years now. Pat's out back laboring at repainting the back wall.
See also: labor
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

labor at something

to work hard at something. He is laboring at his gardening and won't be back in the house until dinnertime. What are you laboring at so intensely?
See also: labor
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • labor at (something)
  • labored
  • labour
  • labor away (at something)
  • labor for
  • labor for (someone or something)
  • labor over
  • labor over (something)
  • hard at (something)
  • hard at it
References in periodicals archive
outline the evolution of London's migrant division of labor, charting the emergence of a new migrant division of labor at the bottom end of the city's labor market, revealing how London's low-wage labor market continues to be characterized by national, ethnic, racial and gender divisions (global cities like London have benefited immensely from migrant labor), and highlighting the extent of London's dependence on the rest of the world for its low-paid labor supply.
WEB WATCH: For information on federal child-labor laws, including rules on hazardous work, go to the Department of Labor at www.dol.gov/dol/topic /youthlabor/hazardousjobs.htm.
that parents [of unschooled children] to a considerable extent are insensible to the wrong they are permitting to be inflicted upon their offspring."(38) Behind the shield of parental authority two perils to the child were sheltered, in his estimation: parental "cupidity and carelessness" and "the excessive and growing demand for the cheapest possible labor" by employers.(39) However, whereas it was granted that employers were driven by market forces to purchase labor at its lowest price, parents of unenrolled children were perceived as deviant, ignorant, or both, in depriving their own of a "fair elementary education."(40)
Daniels, eds., Homework: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Paid Labor at Home (Urbana, 1989).
"Does it mean just bringing people into unions, or does it mean building a social movement with labor at its center?"
In the June 12 SCIENCE, Zingg and his colleagues report that a gene in the uterus of pregnant rats that codes for the production of oxytocin becomes steadily more active during pregnancy, peaking just before labor at more than 150 times its normal level of expression.