belabor
verb
be·la·bor
bi-ˈlā-bər 
bē-
belabored; belaboring; belabors
1
a
: to attack verbally
If I had been ill-natured, I should have shown up the little great man, who had once belabored me in his feeble way.—
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
b
: to beat soundly
… ancient battles in which the combatants belabored one another with swords, staffs, cudgels, halberds and other heavy-duty weapons until the blood flowed …—James Rogers
James Rogers2
: to explain or insist on excessively
her habit of belaboring the obvious
He needlessly belabored the point.
Examples of belabor in a Sentence
Her habit of belaboring the obvious makes her a very boring speaker.
Please don't belabor the point.
He uses his newspaper column to belabor writers for even the most minor grammatical errors.
Recent Examples on the Web
In stating the obvious, Smith didn’t belabor the obvious point.
—John Tamny, Forbes, 17 Oct. 2024
To the filmmakers’ credit, the formulaic aspects are never belabored, and the gentle hints of a possible romance with Gretchen are nicely underplayed.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
The segment is supposed to depict her loneliness and isolation, but the wordless 10 minutes is overlong and dull, belaboring a point that could have been made in less than half the time.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 26 Apr. 2024
What should be a sparkling recounting of a pivotal moment in U.S. history is flattened, becoming a mind-numbing and belabored affair of wig-wearing men shouting at each other in dark rooms.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 12 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for belabor 
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John Tamny, Forbes, 17 Oct. 2024
To the filmmakers’ credit, the formulaic aspects are never belabored, and the gentle hints of a possible romance with Gretchen are nicely underplayed.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
The segment is supposed to depict her loneliness and isolation, but the wordless 10 minutes is overlong and dull, belaboring a point that could have been made in less than half the time.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 26 Apr. 2024
What should be a sparkling recounting of a pivotal moment in U.S. history is flattened, becoming a mind-numbing and belabored affair of wig-wearing men shouting at each other in dark rooms.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 12 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for belabor
Dictionary Entries Near belabor
Cite this Entry
“Belabor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belabor. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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belabor
verb
be·la·bor
bi-ˈlā-bər
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