label

[ley-buh l] /ˈleɪ bəl/
noun
1.
a slip of paper, cloth, or other material, marked or inscribed, for attachment to something to indicate its manufacturer, nature, ownership, destination, etc.
2.
a short word or phrase descriptive of a person, group, intellectual movement, etc.
3.
a word or phrase indicating that what follows belongs in a particular category or classification: The following definition has the label “Archit.”.
4.
Architecture. a molding or dripstone over a door or window, especially one that extends horizontally across the top of the opening and vertically downward for a certain distance at the sides.
5.
a brand or trademark, especially of a manufacturer of phonograph records, tape cassettes, etc.:
She records under a new label.
6.
the manufacturer using such a label:
a major label that has produced some of the best recordings of the year.
7.
Heraldry. a narrow horizontal strip with a number of downward extensions of rectangular or dovetail form, usually placed in chief as the cadency mark of an eldest son.
8.
Obsolete. a strip or narrow piece of anything.
verb (used with object), labeled, labeling or (especially British) labelled, labelling.
9.
to affix a label to; mark with a label.
10.
to designate or describe by or on a label:
The bottle was labeled poison.
11.
to put in a certain class; classify.
12.
Also, radiolabel. Chemistry. to incorporate a radioactive or heavy isotope into (a molecule) in order to make traceable.
Origin
1275-1325; Middle English < Middle French: ribbon, perhaps < Germanic. See lap1
Related forms
labeler, noun
nonlabeling, adjective, noun
nonlabelling, adjective, noun
prelabel, noun, verb (used with object), prelabeled, prelabeling or (especially British) prelabelled, prelabelling.
relabel, verb (used with object), relabeled, relabeling or (especially British) relabelled, relabelling.
unlabeled, adjective
unlabelled, adjective
Examples from the web for labels
  • We have seen that the typical linguistic element labels a concept.
  • Reuse wine bottles by adding your own labels and filling them with mint-infused syrup or vodka.
  • Names are often confused, so some of the variety names that follow may not agree with those you see on nursery labels.
  • Some nutrition labels note whether a nondairy milk's calcium supplement is equal to the calcium in cow's milk.
  • Ardent label readers scan nutritional labels for ingredients that they don't want in their diet.
  • They resembled large, two-handled teapots, but the labels identified them as posset pots.
  • There are few labels and benches to distract from the works.
  • To achieve and retain organic labels, farms have to invest significant capital into modern, energy-efficient equipment.
  • If you can't make sense of food labels, you're not alone.
  • But knowing what you're buying is tricky because many candles don't have labels.
British Dictionary definitions for labels

label

/ˈleɪbəl/
noun
1.
a piece of paper, card, or other material attached to an object to identify it or give instructions or details concerning its ownership, use, nature, destination, etc; tag
2.
a brief descriptive phrase or term given to a person, group, school of thought, etc: the label "Romantic" is applied to many different kinds of poetry
3.
a word or phrase heading a piece of text to indicate or summarize its contents
4.
a trademark or company or brand name on certain goods, esp, formerly, on gramophone records
5.
another name for dripstone (sense 2)
6.
(heraldry) a charge consisting of a horizontal line across the chief of a shield with three or more pendants: the charge of an eldest son
7.
(computing) a group of characters, such as a number or a word, appended to a particular statement in a program to allow its unique identification
8.
(chem) a radioactive element used in a compound to trace the mechanism of a chemical reaction
verb (transitive) -bels, -belling, -belled (US) -bels, -beling, -beled
9.
to fasten a label to
10.
to mark with a label
11.
to describe or classify in a word or phrase: to label someone a liar
12.
to make (one or more atoms in a compound) radioactive, for use in determining the mechanism of a reaction
Derived Forms
labeller, noun
Word Origin
C14: from Old French, from Germanic; compare Old High German lappa rag
Word Origin and History for labels

label

n.

c.1300, "narrow band or strip of cloth" (oldest use is as a technical term in heraldry), from Old French label, lambel "ribbon, fringe worn on clothes" (13c., Modern French lambeau "strip, rag, shred, tatter"), possibly from Frankish *labba or some other Germanic source (cf. Old High German lappa "flap"), from Proto-Germanic *lapp- (see lap (n.)).

Later "dangling strip of cloth or ribbon used as an ornament in dress," "strip attached to a document to hold a seal" (both early 15c.), and with a general meaning "tag, sticker, slip of paper" (1670s). Meaning "circular piece of paper in the center of a gramophone record" (1907), containing information about the recorded music, led to meaning "a recording company" (1947).

v.

"to affix a label to," c.1600, see label (n.); figurative sense of "to categorize" is from 1853. Related: Labeled; labeling; labelled; labelling.

labels in Science
label
  (lā'bəl)   
See tracer.