a labour of love
labor of love
Work that is done for pleasure rather than money. Katherine spends all of her free time knitting baby clothes for her friends. It must be a labor of love.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
a labour of love
COMMON A labour of love is a task that you do because you enjoy it or feel strongly that it is worth doing. Note: `Labour' is spelled `labor' in American English. There is no doubt that his debut novel is a labour of love, and obviously very close to his heart. They concentrated on restoring buildings such as the Victorian greenhouse, an expensive labour of love. Note: This appears in the Bible in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, `Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ'.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
a labour of love
a task done for the love of a person or for the work itself.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
a ˌlabour of ˈlove
a hard task that you do because you want to, not because it is necessary: This tablecloth is a real labour of love. It took her years to make it.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017