label

plural labels

1. A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.

   We laughed at her because the label was still on her new sweater.

   2 more examples

   The label says this silk scarf should not be washed in the washing machine.

   Although the label priced this poster at three pounds, I got it for two.

   Synonyms: sign, tag, ticket

2. A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.

   Ever since he started going to the rock club, he's been given the label "waster".

   Synonyms: category, pigeonhole

3. entertainmentA company that sells records.

   The label signed the band after hearing a demo tape.

   Synonyms: record label

4. computingA user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.

   Storage devices can be given by label or ID.

5. computingA named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
6. governmentA charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung.

   Synonyms: lambel

7. obsoleteA tassel.

   the arms or escutcheon of France , hanging by a label on an oak

   a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC

8. A small strip, especially of paper or parchment (or of some material attached to parchment to carry the seal), but also of iron, brass, land, etc.

   The flesh and skin hung down in long Collops and Labels.

   1679, Hist. of Jetzer, section 5

   3 more examples

   Ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd, / Shall be the label to another deed.

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]

   They […] 'sealed the grave, and rolled a great stone at the mouth of it' and as an ancient tradition says, bound it about with labels of iron.

   1649, Jer[emy] Taylor, chapter 39, in The Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life According to the Christian Institution. […], London: […] R. N. for Francis Ash, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=1 to 3)

   Where Balak met Balaam, standing as it were on his tiptoes on the very last labell of his land, to reach forth […]

   1650, Fuller, Pisgah, IV. i. 25

9. A piece of writing added to something, such as a codicil appended to a will.
10. historicalA brass rule with sights, formerly used with a circumferentor to take altitudes.
11. architectureThe projecting moulding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediaeval architecture.

    Sculptured ends of labels are called label-stops.

    2018, Marilyn Stokstad, Medieval Art, Routledge, →ISBN

12. In mediaeval and later art, a representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.

    Boime correctly suggests that medieval artists who employed labels or scrolls to gloss illustrations typically configured text and image in visually overlapping, but cognitively separate, spaces.

    2000, The Rutgers Art Review

    3 more examples

    2654. Two-handled globular vase; early Deruta lustred ware; centre surrounded by a band of scroll work; on each side the neck is an oval compartment with clasped hands, and a label scroll inscribed "Co pura fe.;" decoration, blue outline on white ground filled in with yellow lustre.

    1859, Inventory of the Objects forming the Collections of the Museum of Ornamental Art at South Kensington, Victoria and Albert Museum, page 34

    The author notes that: Each of these held in one Hand a Scroll or Label, upon which were inscribed in Latin, but in the Old English Character, the Names of Kings and Saints of the Royal Line of MERCIA. Many of the Labels are broke off, others are so much defaced, that only a Syllable or two can be read.

    2011, Catherine A M Clarke, Mapping the Medieval City: Space, Place and Identity in Chester c.1200-1600, University of Wales Press, →ISBN

    While word balloons had been present in Europe for some time, from the phylactery (inscribed scroll) seen in medieval art to the 'labels' or 'banners' of nineteenth-century English satirical illustrator George Cruikshank, among others ...

    2012, David Glover, Scott McCracken, The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 177

13. computingA non-interactive control or widget displaying text, often used to describe the purpose of another control.

present singular third person labels · US participle present labeling · UK participle present labelling · US participle past labeled · US past labeled · UK participle past labelled · UK past labelled

1. transitiveTo put a label (a ticket or sign) on (something).

   The shop assistant labeled all the products in the shop.

   Synonyms: tag, price

2. ambitransitiveditransitiveTo give (a label) to (someone or something) in order to categorise that person or thing.

   He's been unfairly labeled as a cheat, although he's only ever cheated once.

   3 more examples

   A friend of mine who runs an intellectual magazine was grousing about his movie critic, complaining that though the fellow had liked The Godfather (page 58), he had neglected to label it clearly as a masterpiece.

   1972 December 29, Richard Schickel, “Masterpieces underrated and overlooked”, in Life, volume 73, number 25, page 22

   The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it is not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after Al Qaida's leaders.

   2008 May 7, Barack Obama, “Transcript: Senator Obama's remarks in North Carolina”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jun 2018

   And the liberal blogosphere has long labeled Clinton part of the neoconservative wing, a conservative intellectual movement that supports an interventionist foreign policy.

   2016 August 31, Tal Kopan, “Will Hillary Clinton’s GOP outreach alienate progressives?”, in CNN

3. biochemistryTo replace specific atoms by their isotope in order to track the presence or movement of this isotope through a reaction, metabolic pathway or cell.
4. biochemistryTo add a detectable substance, either transiently or permanently, to a biological substance in order to track the presence of the label-substance combination either in situ or in vitro

   They may be used to label and image a protein within tissue, to isolate cells on the basis of marker expression, or to physically capture a protein from a complex biological mixture....

   Apr 15 2015, “Protein binder woes”, in Nature Methods

1. a language spoken in Papua New Guinea