hard labor

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Plus, there was no getting around the fact that Ernesto was getting older, less desirable for hard labor.

From Slate • Jan. 27, 2026

After the war, Faÿ was sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor, but he escaped from prison in 1951 dressed in ecclesiastical costume, with the help of—here one reaches for the phrase “incredible but true”—Toklas.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

“It’s the first job I’ve had where I didn’t feel like it’s hard, hard labor or pressure,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 2025

Planting seedlings is hard labor, and recruiting people to do it, especially on remote, rugged mountains, is harder than it was during the Great Depression.

From New York Times • Apr. 4, 2024

They were working men, with steel and asbestos in their lungs and years’ worth of hard labor under their calluses and cracked fingernails.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot