verb (used with object)
- to explain, worry about, or work at (something) repeatedly or more than is necessary: He kept belaboring the point long after we had agreed.
- to assail persistently, as with scorn or ridicule: a book that belabors the provincialism of his contemporaries.
- to beat vigorously; ply with heavy blows.
- Obsolete. to labor at.
verb (tr)
- to beat severely; thrash
- to attack verbally; criticize harshly
- an obsolete word for labour
chiefly British English spelling of belabor (q.v.); for spelling, see -or.
1590s, “to exert one’s strength upon,” from be- + labor (v.). But figurative sense of “assail with words” is attested somewhat earlier (1590s); and belabored is attested from mid-15c. with a sense of “tilled, cultivated.”