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Definition
to keep talking about something more than is necessary — especially to overexplainMore rarely (and archaically), belabor can refer to repeatedly hitting or criticizing someone.
- Please don't belabor the obvious.
belabor = keep talking about something more than is necessary
- Other people have that belabored look when they play, but you can't hear it in the sound.Malcolm Gladwell -- Blink
- He saw the village; he was seen coming bending forward upon his horse, belabouring it with great blows, the girths dripping with blood.Gustave Flaubert -- Madame Bovary
- He bellowed, while he belabored Martin's back: "Well, well, well, well, well, well!Sinclair Lewis -- Arrowsmith
- Legree was provoked beyond measure by Tom's evident happiness; and riding up to him, belabored him over his head and shoulders.Harriet Beecher Stowe -- Uncle Tom's Cabin
- "I do not mean to belabor this point of language, your honor," I continued, "but I would like to cite a precedent case for the benefit of the court.Pat Conroy -- The Lords of Discipline
- He belaboured her with reproaches, abuses.Virginia Woolf -- A Sketch of the Past
- The long beam continued to belabor the door, at regular intervals, like the clapper of a bell, the stones to rain down, the door to groan.Victor Hugo -- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Belabored by their officers, they began to move forward.Stephen Crane -- The Red Badge of Courage
- But Rieux was thinking of Cottard, and the dull thud of fists belaboring the wretched man's face haunted him as he went to visit his old asthma patient.Albert Camus -- The Plague
- Again, July felt belabored by the tireless thing in Clara.Larry McMurtry -- Lonesome Dove
- He may hit me on the head and they may belabour me from behind.Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Notes from the Underground
- They cried out to their respective households, belabored and slew people round about, and went entirely mad.Joseph Campbell -- The Hero With a Thousand Faces
- Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.John F. Kennedy -- Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You
- Tiagunova seemed to be chasing Ogryzkova, perhaps belaboring her with her fists whenever she caught up with her.Boris Pasternak -- Doctor Zhivago
- The quilt that rested across Sacha's nose and mouth shifted with her belabored breathing.Marissa Meyer -- Cinder
- We sit as though in a boiler that is being belaboured from without on all sides.Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
- Moody's grandfather wrote in belabored, redundant, didactic prose.Betty Mahmoody -- Not Without My Daughter
- Belabored by the ox-goad of Lykourgos, killer that he was, they all flung down their ivy-staves, while terrified Dionysos plunged under a sea-surge.Homer -- The Iliad
- Between them they belaboured the boy right soundly, and then gave the girls and their mother a beating for showing sympathy for the victim.Mark Twain -- The Prince and The Pauper
(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans use belaboring.)
(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans use belabored.)
(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans use belabor.)
(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans use belabored.)
(editor's note: This is a British spelling. Americans use belabored.)
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