belabor

verb

be·​la·​bor bi-ˈlā-bər How to pronounce belabor (audio)
bē-
belabored; belaboring; belabors

transitive verb

1
a
: to attack verbally
If I had been ill-natured, I should have shown up the little great man, who had once belabored me in his feeble way.Oliver Wendell Holmes
b
: to beat soundly
… ancient battles in which the combatants belabored one another with swords, staffs, cudgels, halberds and other heavy-duty weapons until the blood flowed …James Rogers
2
: to explain or insist on excessively
her habit of belaboring the obvious
He needlessly belabored the point.

Examples of belabor in a Sentence

Her habit of belaboring the obvious makes her a very boring speaker. Please don't belabor the point. He uses his newspaper column to belabor writers for even the most minor grammatical errors.
Recent Examples on the Web Rather than belabor the premise, NYC loyalists Wiki and MIKE use it to frame an experiential dialogue. Pitchfork, 11 Dec. 2023 Not to belabor the point, but why does NYU have a UAE campus? Brian T. Allen, National Review, 14 Dec. 2023 Without belaboring the comparison, Runciman elaborates a case for the state, which binds human reason in a lattice of rules and procedures, as an algorithmic device. Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 30 Nov. 2023 Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel said something on Monday that would seem to be belaboring the obvious. Mark Inabinett | Minabinett@al.com, al, 14 Sep. 2023 The looming courtroom showdown is poised to push his insistence that election fraud occurred in 2020 toward the center of the 2024 presidential campaign, a dismaying prospect for Republicans and some of Trump’s advisers who have urged him to stop belaboring that subject. Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer, Anchorage Daily News, 4 Aug. 2023 At the same time, Decker didn’t want to be stuck in the studio for weeks on end belaboring the process. Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 7 June 2023 There is no point belaboring the record with the sundry flaws in those charges (see, e.g., here, here, here, and here). Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 8 Apr. 2023 Again, short and sweet, no need to belabor the point. Dan Stillman, Washington Post, 10 May 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'belabor.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1596, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of belabor was in 1596

Dictionary Entries Near belabor

Cite this Entry

“Belabor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belabor. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

belabor

verb
be·​la·​bor bi-ˈlā-bər How to pronounce belabor (audio)
1
: to keep explaining or insisting on to excess
I don't want to belabor the point
2

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