belabor

English

Etymology

From be- (“on, upon, about, over”) +‎ labor.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɪˈleɪ.bə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

belabor (third-person singular simple present belabors, present participle belaboring, simple past and past participle belabored)

1. US spelling of belabour.
   • 1981, Robert Alter, “A Literary Approach to the Bible”, in The Art of Biblical Narrative, page 16:

     He makes a valuable beginning […] ; but whether out of an uncertain sense of audience or because of his own relation to the subject, rather too much space is devoted to belaboring the obvious, especially in regard to basic matters of how literary narrative work.

   • 2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     In terms of the overall story of the finale, it’s smart how much emphasis the episode puts on the juice in the portal gun, as that’s going to be a major factor in “Rickmurai Jack;” the portal gun is low key the most important invention in Rick’s arsenal, and the episode does a good job of underlining that without belaboring the point.

Derived terms

• belaboredly
• belaborer
• belabor the point
• unbelabored

Anagrams

• borable