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Labour of love   /lˈeɪbˌaʊr əv ləv/   Listen
Labour of love

noun
1.
Productive work performed voluntarily without material reward or compensation.  Synonym: labor of love.






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"Labour of love" Quotes from Famous Books



... girl was toiling up the beach, her hands, holding up her overall laden with stones for the castle. It proved a heavy load for her to carry, and she looked hot and tired. It was purely a labour of love, for the castle was nearly complete, but the idea of keeping the sea out of it as long as possible had taken her fancy. About half-way she was forced to sit down and rest, and as she did so she caught sight of Thomas calmly smoking under the ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various

... that time, year after year, gained the Balliol scholarship. But circumstances made him decide otherwise, and in 1865 he passed the necessary examination for a clerkship in the House of Lords. The long vacations gave him time to continue this labour of love, and in the intervals of much other literary work, and in spite of ill health, he completed the translation of the twelve books of the Aeneid. He looked forward to re-editing it and bringing it out when he should have retired from his work in the House of Lords, but this day ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil

... "'Tis a fox!" or, "There's a fox in the grove," and then he would steal gently up to try to get a glimpse of reynard. He never looked more natural than when carrying seven or eight brace of partridges, four or five hares, and a lease of pheasants; it was a labour of love to him to carry such a load back to the village after a day's shooting. In his pockets alone he could stow away more game than most men can conveniently carry on ...
— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs

... and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike, Therefore accomplish thy labour of love, till the heart ...
— About Peggy Saville • Mrs. G. de Horne Vaizey

... of this story of mine which I have been busy writing for the last twenty months. It has been hard work, for I was new to the business, and had to learn how to do it, but it has been a pleasant task and a labour of love. Now we disputed about it. I said it was finished. She said it wasn't. I said I ought to know. She replied not necessarily, since I was such a great goose. Then I loaded my big gun and thought to blow her clean out of ...
— The Yeoman Adventurer • George W. Gough

... spite of the fact that the numbers of permanent workers in the office and out of it increase all the time, we have work here from morning to night, often including holidays. But we do it gladly, for it is a labour of love. At present our chief work lies in taking home French children from the occupied territory of France. In Belgium this work is now nearly discharged, and a lady has only to go there once more, this month, to fetch the last batch of children. The ...
— The Better Germany in War Time - Being some Facts towards Fellowship • Harold Picton

... hoped to be able to throw that up as soon as he could do so with any prudence, and the time that was not occupied by his school duties he devoted to the perfecting of his friend's work. It was hardly a labour of love, and he came to it with an ever-increasing weariness; all the tedious toiling through piles of proofs and revised proofs, the weeding out of ingenious perversions which seemed to possess a hydra-like power of multiplication after the ...
— The Giant's Robe • F. Anstey

... for this purpose as a labour of love. I had no anticipation of success, for I feared that the interest in the subject-matter of my lectures ...
— The Constitution of the United States - A Brief Study of the Genesis, Formulation and Political Philosophy of the Constitution • James M. Beck

... difficulties, beginning to see a little through the mists of ignorance, making some sensible progress on the long road of learning. Study grew delightful her lessons with Alice one of her greatest enjoyments. And as they were a labour of love to both teacher and scholar, and as it was the aim of each to see quite to the bottom of every matter, where it was possible, and to leave no difficulties behind them on the road which they had not cleared away, no wonder ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Elizabeth Wetherell

... heaps, spanned and crossed by streaks of various colours, brick-red and brownish-purple [14], and stacked the Karbi or straw, which was surrounded like the grain with thorn, as a defence against the wild hog. All seemed to consider it a labour of love: the harvest-home song sounded pleasantly to our ears, and, contrasting with the silent desert, the hum of man's habitation ...
— First footsteps in East Africa • Richard F. Burton

... a task which has indeed been a labour of love. Many poets may inspire as high an admiration as Schiller; few so tender a personal affection. Even in his doubts and his errors, we have that interest in his struggles which arises from the conviction of his sound heart and his manly nature. Wrestling at one time with ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 54, No. 334, August 1843 • Various



Words linked to "Labour of love" :   task, project, labor, undertaking



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