Synonyms of laboring

laboring

verb

present participle of labor

as in struggling

to devote serious and sustained effort

the young lawyer labored most of the weekend over the difficult legal brief

Synonyms & Similar Words

• struggling
• striving
• working
• endeavoring
• toiling
• trying
• slaving
• plowing
• sweating
• tugging
• hustling
• grubbing
• drudging
• straining
• plodding
• humping
• digging (away)
• slogging
• plugging
• travailing
• banging away
• moiling
• pegging (away)
• fagging
• sweating blood
• beavering (away)
• applying (oneself)
• attacking
• buckling (down)
• exerting
• hammering (away)
• exercising
• driving
• pitching in
• scratching
• essaying
• overworking
• wading
• digging in
• trudging
• scrabbling
• grinding (out)
• knuckling down
• eking out
• overexerting
• putting out

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• breaking
• slackening
• easing (up)
• idling
• resting
• lounging
• loafing
• chilling
• hanging (around or out)
• shirking
• lazing
• dallying
• letting up
• relaxing
• bumming
• lolling
• basking
• hacking (around)
• unwinding
• slacking (off)
• goofing (off)
• playing
• reposing
• hanging
• goldbricking
• footling
• trifling
• dillydallying
• dabbling
• fooling around
• vegging out
• messing around
• doodling
• goofing (around)
• puttering (around)
• monkeying (around)
• pottering (around)
• hanging about
• fribbling

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of laboring

McNeely’s portrait of a laboring mother, swathed in glowing fields of chartreuse, outshines (again, literally) art history’s greats. — Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 18 Sep. 2026

In line with the great tech selloff over AI spending fears, Capgemini’s share price has been laboring. — Kamal Ahmed, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2026

While practicing for a sixth straight day, laboring in a heat index pushing 90 degrees, the Chiefs were bound to be a bit ill-mannered. — Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 8 Aug. 2026

Complicated births that require, for example, extended time laboring will now be differentiated and might cost more, while uncomplicated births will cost less. — Camille A. Clare, STAT, 23 July 2026

Since the Computing Community Consortium hosted its first conference on thermodynamic computing in 2019, a small community of researchers has been laboring to put it into practice. — Quanta Magazine, 15 July 2026

But others are still at work, laboring under a new collective bargaining agreement with another labor organization, the International Longshoremen’s Association. — Talia Soglin, Chicago Tribune, 5 July 2026

The infant had been trapped for almost three days; a team of rescuers from Fairfax, Virginia, had been laboring to reach the boy, who was nine months old, for at least six hours. — Armando Ledezma, New Yorker, 30 June 2026

In the days since posting the news, Mitchell has continued to update her followers about the aftermath and the start of the healing process, including videos of herself laboring. — Tabitha Parent, PEOPLE, 23 June 2026