What does belabouring mean?
Belabouring is the present-participle form of belabour, a transitive verb meaning to attack someone persistently with questions, criticism, or accusations. It is often used when a person is being pressed hard for an explanation or challenged repeatedly about a disputed issue. The word has a forceful, somewhat formal or literary tone, and in British English it is spelled with a second u; the usual American spelling is belaboring. Although its dominant modern meaning is verbal, belabour also has an older and less common literal sense involving beating or thrashing. In ordinary use, the verb is usually transitive: a speaker belabours a person, an interviewer belabours a witness, or a critic belabours an argument. The expression “belabour someone with questions” captures a particularly familiar use, in which repeated questioning becomes insistent or intimidating.
verbTo attack someone persistently with questions, criticism, or accusations; historically, to beat or thrash.
- To attack someone persistently with questions, criticism, or accusations.
- To beat or thrash; now chiefly historical or literary.
"The committee belabouring him with questions made it difficult for him to explain the proposal."
"She continued belabouring the witness with questions about the missing money."
"The novel's antagonist spends much of the scene belabouring his younger brother for his apparent betrayal."
Belabouring turns a simple question into an oral siege.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does belabouring come from?
Belabour is formed from be- and labour, whose deeper source is Latin laborare, “to work” or “toil,” through Old French. Historically, the verb had senses connected with working at and beating someone. Its now-dominant figurative sense of assailing someone with words developed as an extension of the idea of subjecting a person to sustained pressure.
Related word forms
How belabouring is actually used
The word is more common in British English, where the spelling is belabouring; the usual American form is belaboring. In contemporary use it usually describes vigorous or persistent verbal criticism and can sound formal, forceful, or old-fashioned.
Easily confused with belabouring
Belabouring means to attack someone persistently with questions, criticism, or accusations, whereas labouring means working hard or doing a task with effort.