All 5 Uses

laboratory
in
The Lovely Bones
(Auto-generated)

In places, the lab later found, there was a dense concentration of my blood mixed with the dirt, but at the time, the police grew more and more frustrated, plying the cold wet ground and looking for girl.†
Chpt 2

lab = a workplace where people do scientific or medical research, or produce drugs or chemicals (also used figuratively) OR (as an adjective) related to such a place
He had tucked it into my notebook during our Wednesday lab.†
Chpt 2
They had not yet recovered from their strange role in the discovery of my death—their faithful lab having found the first evidence.†
Chpt 16
The bones of the neighborhood animals he had found in Mr. Harvey's crawl space were there, along with the lab confirmation of evidence of quicklime.†
Chpt 16
When he'd picked the roll up at the photo lab my father sat in the car staring at photos of a woman he felt he barely knew anymore.†
Chpt 17 *

Definitions:

(1) (laboratory)
a workplace where people do scientific or medical research, or produce drugs or chemicals

or (as an adjective): related to such a place
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Much more rarely, lab can be used as an abbreviated way of saying Labrador retriever. It is also a rare last name and may indicate someone's initials.