labor 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.

See also: labor, love, of

labor of love

Fig. a task that is either unpaid or badly paid and that one does simply for one's own satisfaction or pleasure or to please someone whom one likes or loves. Jane made no money out of the biography she wrote. She was writing about the life of a friend and the book was a labor of love. Mary hates knitting, but she made a sweater for her boyfriend. What a labor of love.

See also: labor, love, of

labor of love

Work done for one's satisfaction rather than monetary reward. For example, The research took three years but it was a labor of love. This expression appears twice in the New Testament (Hebrews 6:10, Thessalonians 1:3), referring to those who do God's work as a labor of love. [c. 1600]

See also: labor, love, of

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'.

See also: labour, love, of

a labour of love

a task done for the love of a person or for the work itself.

See also: labour, love, of

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.

See also: labour, love, of