Belabour

Quick meaning: Belabour is a verb meaning (transitive, obsolete) To labour about; labour over; to work hard upon; to ply diligently.

Meaning

(transitive, obsolete) To labour about; labour over; to work hard upon; to ply diligently.

More Meanings

1. (transitive) To beat or thump (someone) soundly.
2. (transitive) To attack (someone) verbally.
3. (transitive) To discuss or explain (something) excessively or repeatedly; to harp on or overelaborate.

Example Sentences

And so, to belabour the school metaphor, diehard fans of both those fallen leaders resent this pair for snitching in class.

[F]ew country people there are who do not love to see two sturdy fellows thwack and belabour each other with quarter-staff, single-stick, or fists.

1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, inaugural speech Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belabouring those problems which divide us.

1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling He saw the village; he was seen coming bending forward upon his horse, belabouring it with great blows, the girths dripping with blood.

Word Forms

• belabours
• belabouring
• belaboured
• belabor

Synonyms for belabour

Depending on context, synonyms include buffet, thrash, belabor.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include belabor, labour, outlabour, travel, beswink, toil.

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