What does belabour mean?
Belabour is chiefly a British verb meaning to discuss or explain something at excessive length, so that the speaker seems unable to leave the point. Its effect is usually repetitive and mildly tedious: a person may belabour an argument, belabour a distinction, or belabour someone with questions and complaints. The word often has a formal, faintly disapproving tone, and it can imply that further explanation is unnecessary rather than helpful. Belabour is the usual British spelling; belabor is standard in American English and has the same principal meaning. Older English also used the word more literally, for beating or chastising, and more generally for pressing or urging a person vigorously. Those senses are now rare, while the modern use remains especially associated with prolonged verbal treatment of a subject. A related older sense is forceful or repeated criticism, which shades into the present meaning when the repetition becomes tedious. Belabour is therefore useful not merely as a synonym for explaining, but for identifying speech that has become laborious through overemphasis.
verbTo discuss or explain something at excessive length, especially in a repetitive or tedious way; more rarely, to press or criticize someone forcefully.
- To dwell on or discuss a subject at excessive length.
- To criticize, question, or press a person forcefully or repeatedly.
- To beat, whip, or chastise; now archaic or very rare.
"She belaboured the distinction until the rest of us were thoroughly bored."
"She belaboured the distinction until the rest of us were thoroughly bored."
"The minister spent ten minutes belabouring the same statistics without answering a single question."
To belabour a point is to make it sound as though it has been beaten into the ground.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does belabour come from?
Belabour was formed in early modern English by combining be- with labour. Labour comes through Old French labour from Latin labor, meaning toil or work, and the same Latin root underlies English labor, laborious, and laboratory. Earlier senses of belabour included working laboriously on something, pressing a point, and beating or chastising; its familiar modern sense concerns discussing a subject at excessive length.
Related word forms
How belabour is actually used
The dominant sense is mildly disapproving and somewhat formal, implying that the treatment of a subject has become tedious. The stronger critical sense is now less common, while the literal sense of beating or chastising is archaic.
Easily confused with belabour
Belabour is the usual British spelling of belabor; belabor is the standard spelling in American English, and both have the same principal meanings.