manual labor
18
3.3
- noun
- /ˈmæn.ju.əl ˈleɪ.bɚ/
- US
:
trabajo manual
- Married women perform complementary labor tasks to their husbands, contributing their manual labor and organizational skills.
- perform manual labor
- manual labor jobs
- hard manual labor
I don't know the level of manual labor she has done.
- I don't know the level of manual labor she has done.
- So it's just, you know, I, I do a lot of manual labor.
- There was a large slave class that did most of the manual labor.
- Churchill didn't even consider that girls might go to college, but should learn a craft, do manual labor and let off steam, as he calls it.
- The Czar of Russia engaged in manual labor, learning how to use axes and chisels and hammers to build a ship.
- So of course they were not frail as when they were working in the field and you know, and doing manual labor.
- These people were raped, tortured, did all of the manual labor that started the impetus for generational white wealth.
Examples
-
The Czar of Russia engaged in manual labor, learning how to use axes and chisels and hammers to build a ship.
-
Everything I did to supplement my income in the fire department was all manual labor, hardwood floors, carpentry, roofing.
-
This guy just came out to do manual labor for one night.
-
And without a college education, in this job market, that means manual labor.
-
So there is still some respect for manual labor in this nation's youth.
Fiction book (1999) -
Air pollution leaves the poor, who often earn a living from manual labor, especially worse off.
Academic text (2009) -
Before that, I worked a couple of summers doing manual labor in a plastic factory.
Blog text (3) -
The casting, cleaning, chasing, and assembling of the bronze reliefs required years of physically demanding manual labor.
Academic text (2012) -
After a ten-hour day of manual labor, Phillip wasn't in the mood for one of Seth's periodic snits.
Fiction book (1999) -
Many immigrants find employment opportunities in manual labor, such as construction and farming.
Synonyms
606
1.4
Work done using physical effort, often a hard task
10
5.3
Boring, simple jobs that are necessary and take a lot of time
1
9.9
Hard physical work often done by hand
How Physical
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'manual' means done by hand and 'labor' means work, so together they literally mean work done by hand rather than by machines. This adjective+noun combination is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Manual labor comes from a simple picture: manual means 'by hand' and labor means 'work'. So manual labor refers to work done with your hands or with physical effort rather than by 'machines' or by 'mental' effort.