work, 
toil, hard work, manual labor, efforts, employment, exertions, industry (formal 
or literary), hard labor, blood, sweat, and tears 
workers, 
work force, employees, labor force, hands, staff, personnel, manual workers, 
blue-collar workers, working class
antonym: management
 
childbirth, 
delivery, giving birth, confinement (dated), contractions 
task, 
job, chore, effort, exertion, mission, duty, activity, occupation 
 
struggle, 
exert, grapple, wrestle, agonize 
strive, 
strain, grind away, endeavor (US, formal), keep at it, burn the candle at both 
ends, toil, slog, sweat blood, work like a dog, break your back, sweat 
(informal), struggle, plug away (informal)
antonym: laze 
around
 
struggle, 
complain, seize up, malfunction, falter, crash, strain, play up, stall 
drag 
yourself, stagger, struggle, plod, lumber (UK, informal), trudge, trail, 
slog
antonym: skip
 
overemphasize, 
go on, dwell on, exaggerate, drive home, overdo, stress, underline, accentuate, 
belabor
antonym: skim