Idiom
labor of love
Meaning
A task performed voluntarily without expectation of reimbursement; an altruistic work or undertaking.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Restoring this old car is a labor of love for my father.”
“Building this wooden playhouse for my kids is a labor of love.”
“Cooking a five-course meal for your friends is a true labor of love.”
“She spent months writing her novel without a publisher, viewing the entire project as a labor of love.”
“He spends every weekend tending to the community garden because he considers the hard work a labor of love for his neighbors.”
“The retired teacher spends hours every week organizing the free library in town as a labor of love for local readers.”
“The architect dedicated years to the restoration of the historic chapel, treating the meticulous project as a true labor of love.”
Examples
simple
“Restoring this old car is a labor of love for my father.”
“Building this wooden playhouse for my kids is a labor of love.”
“Cooking a five-course meal for your friends is a true labor of love.”
contextual
“She spent months writing her novel without a publisher, viewing the entire project as a labor of love.”
“He spends every weekend tending to the community garden because he considers the hard work a labor of love for his neighbors.”
“The retired teacher spends hours every week organizing the free library in town as a labor of love for local readers.”
complex
“The architect dedicated years to the restoration of the historic chapel, treating the meticulous project as a true labor of love.”
Origin
The phrase entered the language as a calque of the Koine Greek expression κόπου τῆς ἀγάπης. The construction originates in several epistles within the Christian New Testament, where it functioned as a literal rendering of the Greek phrase into English.
Key words
Related idioms
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