All 3 Uses

laboratory
in
Freak the Mighty
(Auto-generated)

Freak bends down and he's got his hand cupped around my ear and he's whispering: "Inside the research building is a secret laboratory called The Experimental Bionics Unit.†
p. 51.7

laboratory = 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
Speak of this to no one, but at some future time as yet undetermined, I will enter that lab and become the first bionically improved human.†
p. 51.9 *
So while she's bandaging up my hand, I tell her about how Freak has been coming to the medical research lab every few months to get fitted for his new bionic body, and Dr. Spivak's face goes soft and she nods to herself and says, "Well, that explains it."†
p. 156.7

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.