belabor

verb

be·la·bor bi-ˈlā-bər

bē-

belabored; belaboring; belabors

transitive verb

: 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

: 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

: to explain or insist on excessively

her habit of belaboring the obvious

He needlessly belabored the point.

Example Sentences

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 Leiby does not belabor her own privilege, and her story gains power from that choice.

New York Times, 27 June 2022 No need to belabor the record with my objections to its one-sided composition and lack of cross-examination.

Andrew C. Mccarthy, National Review, 18 June 2022 Almodóvar doesn’t belabor the reference or its tragic significance; a viewer could easily miss it, which strikes me as part of his point.

Los Angeles Times, 23 Dec. 2021 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 See More

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.