"belabor" meaning in English

See belabor in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /bɪˈleɪ.bə/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-belabour.wav Forms: belabors [present, singular, third-person], belaboring [participle, present], belabored [participle, past], belabored [past]
Etymology: From be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labor. Etymology templates: {{pre|en|be-|labor|t1=on, upon, about, over}} be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labor Head templates: {{en-verb}} belabor (third-person singular simple present belabors, present participle belaboring, simple past and past participle belabored)
  1. US spelling of belabour. Tags: US, alt-of Alternative form of: belabour Derived forms: belaboredly, belaborer, belabor the point, unbelabored

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "be-",
        "3": "labor",
        "t1": "on, upon, about, over"
      },
      "expansion": "be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labor",
      "name": "pre"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labor.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "belabors",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
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      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "belabored",
      "tags": [
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        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "belabored",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "name": "en-verb"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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          "word": "belabour"
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      "categories": [
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with be-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "belaboredly"
        },
        {
          "word": "belaborer"
        },
        {
          "word": "belabor the point"
        },
        {
          "word": "unbelabored"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              168,
              178
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1981, Robert Alter, “A Literary Approach to the Bible”, in The Art of Biblical Narrative, page 16:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              315,
              325
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          "ref": "2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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        "US spelling of belabour."
      ],
      "id": "en-belabor-en-verb-2FCOJKk1",
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        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
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  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˈleɪ.bə/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-belabour.wav",
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    }
  ],
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}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "belaboredly"
    },
    {
      "word": "belaborer"
    },
    {
      "word": "belabor the point"
    },
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      "word": "unbelabored"
    }
  ],
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        "2": "be-",
        "3": "labor",
        "t1": "on, upon, about, over"
      },
      "expansion": "be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labor",
      "name": "pre"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labor.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "belabors",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "belaboring",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "belabored",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "belabored",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "belabor (third-person singular simple present belabors, present participle belaboring, simple past and past participle belabored)",
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  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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        {
          "word": "belabour"
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        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English terms prefixed with be-",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              168,
              178
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1981, Robert Alter, “A Literary Approach to the Bible”, in The Art of Biblical Narrative, page 16:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              315,
              325
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2021 September 6, Zack Handlen, “Rick And Morty ends its fifth season looking for an escape hatch”, in AV Club:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
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      ],
      "links": [
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        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "alt-of"
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  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bɪˈleɪ.bə/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-belabour.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a4/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-belabour.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-belabour.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a4/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-belabour.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-belabour.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "belabor"
}

Download raw JSONL data for belabor meaning in English (2.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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