belabour
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belabour
- /bɪˈleɪ.bə/ UK
Rhymes with -eɪbə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
From be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labour. Compare bework, betoil, beswink.
verb belabours · belabouring · belaboured · belabor
- To labour about; labour over; to work hard upon; to ply diligently.
- To beat or thump (someone) soundly. 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.
- To attack (someone) verbally.
- To discuss or explain (something) excessively or repeatedly; to harp on or overelaborate. 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, inaugural speech Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belabouring those problems which divide us.
