belabour

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
12
Words With Friends
16
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/bɪˈleɪ.bə/

Definition of belabour

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (UK, obsolete, transitive)To labour about; labour over; to work hard upon; to ply diligently.
See all 4 definitions

verb

  1. (UK, obsolete, transitive)To labour about; labour over; to work hard upon; to ply diligently.
  2. (UK, transitive)To beat or thump (someone) soundly.
    “1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling He saw the village; he was seen coming bending forward upon his horse, belabouring it with great blows, the girths dripping with blood.”
    “[F]ew country people there are who do not love to see two sturdy fellows thwack and belabour each other with quarter-staff, single-stick, or fists.”
  3. (UK, transitive)To attack (someone) verbally.
  4. (UK, transitive)To discuss or explain (something) excessively or repeatedly; to harp on or overelaborate.
    “1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, inaugural speech Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belabouring those problems which divide us.”
    “And so, to belabour the school metaphor, diehard fans of both those fallen leaders resent this pair for snitching in class.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From be- (“on, upon, about, over”) + labour. Compare bework, betoil, beswink.

Words you can make from belabour

136 playable · top: BARBULE (11 pts)

Best play barbule 11 points

7-letter words

2 words

6-letter words

12 words

5-letter words

19 words

4-letter words

49 words

3-letter words

39 words

2-letter words

14 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to belabour to make another valid word.

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