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belabour

 - 3 dictionary results

be⋅la⋅bor

  [bi-ley-ber]
Use belabour in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to explain, worry about, or work at (something) repeatedly or more than is necessary: He kept belaboring the point long after we had agreed.
2. to assail persistently, as with scorn or ridicule: a book that belabors the provincialism of his contemporaries.
3. to beat vigorously; ply with heavy blows.
4. Obsolete. to labor at.
Also, especially British, be⋅la⋅bour.

Origin:
1590–1600; be- + labor
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To belabour
be·la·bour   (bĭ-lā'bər)   
v.   Chiefly British
Variant of belabor.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

belabor 
1604, "to exert one's strength upon," from be- + labor. But fig. sense of "assail with words" is attested somewhat earlier (1596).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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