belabor

verb

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be·la·bor | \ bi-ˈlā-bər

, bē- \

belabored; belaboring; belabors

Definition of belabor

transitive verb

1a : 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.

Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More About belabor

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 There’s heavy material here, but ‘Passing’ doesn’t belabor its points. — Mark Olsen Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2021 To belabor the point: U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh was in Cleveland on Monday promoting Democratic President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. — cleveland, 26 Oct. 2021 Not to belabor the movie-industry metaphor, but Korea had a Marvel Cinematic Universe problem long before Hollywood was overrun by superhero sequels. — William Pesek, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2021 To belabor a recent theme of this space as well as the obvious, pragmatists have the stronger political argument in the national context. — John Brummett, Arkansas Online, 21 Sep. 2021 There’s no easy way into this conversation, and Mira does admirably not to belabor it. — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2021 Not to belabor the point, but that’s exactly the problem something like the California bill is trying to remedy. — Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2021 Kicker Greg Zuerlein was disappointing — no need to belabor that point — but so was the kickoff coverage at times. — David Moore, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2021 What has changed, however, is the degree to which the novel seems to anxiously belabor its own status, especially in Alice’s emails. — Jane Hu, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'belabor.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.