"laboured" meaning in English

See laboured in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈleɪ.bɚd/ [General-American], /ˈleɪ.bəd/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: en-us-laboured.ogg [US] Forms: more laboured [comparative], most laboured [superlative], labored [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-adj}} laboured (comparative more laboured, superlative most laboured)
  1. Expressive of strenuous effort. Tags: UK
    Sense id: en-laboured-en-adj-lDeF7iJl Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Dutch translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 48 11 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 36 33 31 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 35 35 30 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 36 43 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 35 39 27
  2. (figurative) Of writing or speech or similar, stilted or not natural due to too much effort being used in the production. Tags: UK, figuratively
    Sense id: en-laboured-en-adj-ZnhvQt3m Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Dutch translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 48 11 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 36 33 31 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 35 35 30 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 32 43 25 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 36 43 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 35 39 27
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: labouredly, unlaboured

Verb

IPA: /ˈleɪ.bɚd/ [General-American], /ˈleɪ.bəd/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: en-us-laboured.ogg [US] Forms: labored [alternative]
Head templates: {{head|en|verb form}} laboured
  1. simple past and past participle of labour Tags: form-of, participle, past Form of: labour Translations (Expressive of strenuous effort): тежък (težăk) (Bulgarian), труден (truden) (Bulgarian), moeizaam (Dutch)
    Sense id: en-laboured-en-verb-j1XadANA Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Terms with Bulgarian translations, Terms with Dutch translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 48 11 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 36 33 31 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 35 35 30 Disambiguation of Terms with Bulgarian translations: 36 43 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 35 39 27

Alternative forms

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      "_dis1": "0 0",
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    },
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      "form": "more laboured",
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        "comparative"
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    },
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      "form": "most laboured",
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        "superlative"
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              32,
              40
            ]
          ],
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          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              127,
              135
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2026 January 7, 'Mystery Shopper', “Cornish cream - without the jams?”, in RAIL, number 1052, page 48:",
          "text": "At Par, 150207 is the unit for the 1416 to Newquay. It is quite tatty and lacks tables - but does have plug sockets. It sounds laboured as it leaves, and while it sounds like it's struggling as it tackles Luxulyan, it's not losing time.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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        "Expressive of strenuous effort."
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        "Of writing or speech or similar, stilted or not natural due to too much effort being used in the production."
      ],
      "id": "en-laboured-en-adj-ZnhvQt3m",
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          "writing",
          "writing"
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        [
          "speech",
          "speech"
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        [
          "stilted",
          "stilted"
        ],
        [
          "natural",
          "natural"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) Of writing or speech or similar, stilted or not natural due to too much effort being used in the production."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈleɪ.bɚd/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈleɪ.bəd/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-laboured.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bb/En-us-laboured.ogg/En-us-laboured.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/En-us-laboured.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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  "word": "laboured"
}

{
  "forms": [
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      "form": "labored",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
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  ],
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        "2": "verb form"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
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      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "labour"
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      ],
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        "simple past and past participle of labour"
      ],
      "id": "en-laboured-en-verb-j1XadANA",
      "links": [
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          "labour",
          "labour#English"
        ]
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        "form-of",
        "participle",
        "past"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "lang_code": "bg",
          "roman": "težăk",
          "sense": "Expressive of strenuous effort",
          "word": "тежък"
        },
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "lang_code": "bg",
          "roman": "truden",
          "sense": "Expressive of strenuous effort",
          "word": "труден"
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          "code": "nl",
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          "lang_code": "nl",
          "sense": "Expressive of strenuous effort",
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        }
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      "ipa": "/ˈleɪ.bəd/",
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      "audio": "en-us-laboured.ogg",
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      "form": "most laboured",
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        "superlative"
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        "(figurative) Of writing or speech or similar, stilted or not natural due to too much effort being used in the production."
      ],
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        "figuratively"
      ]
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    },
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    "Pages with entries",
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    "Terms with Dutch translations"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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  "senses": [
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        "simple past and past participle of labour"
      ],
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          "labour#English"
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        "form-of",
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      "ipa": "/ˈleɪ.bɚd/",
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        "General-American"
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        "Received-Pronunciation"
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    },
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    {
      "code": "bg",
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      "lang_code": "bg",
      "roman": "težăk",
      "sense": "Expressive of strenuous effort",
      "word": "тежък"
    },
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "lang_code": "bg",
      "roman": "truden",
      "sense": "Expressive of strenuous effort",
      "word": "труден"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "lang_code": "nl",
      "sense": "Expressive of strenuous effort",
      "word": "moeizaam"
    }
  ],
  "word": "laboured"
}

Download raw JSONL data for laboured meaning in English (3.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.