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Glite Dictionary
🔁 To repeat too much 🥊 To hit repeatedly
to belabor

to belabor

10 8.1
To talk about something for too long and say the same things again
  • verb
  • /bɪˈleɪbər/
  • US
: reiterar
  • You don't have to belabor it.
  • belabor the obvious
  • belabor the point
  • belabor the issue

And not to belabor the Marine point, but.

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Examples

  • He tends to belabor minor details in his presentations, which makes them longer than necessary.

  • Let's not belabor the fact that you have no sense of timing, Theodore.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I will not belabor the point here.

    Academic text (2010)

  • I do not want to belabor the point, but consider the evidence.

    Blog text (11)

  • Now, not to belabor the obvious, but I will anyway.

  • So let's not belabor the difference.

  • Most of the key issues have been belabored at great length.

    Academic text (1991)

  • I don't mean to belabor the point, but does what I'm saying make sense to you?

    Blog text (5)

  • Even though I am concerned with critically examining Dolphin's use of statistics, I do not want to belabor the point.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The differences between the two approaches should be self-explanatory, so I won't belabor the point.

    Blog text (2)

Synonyms

to nag
vsto belabor
  • Informal
65 2.6

To keep criticizing or telling someone to do things in an annoying way

focuses on long or repeated talk about a subject rather than pestering a person
to harp on
vsto belabor
  • Informal
25 6.7

Talk again and again about the same thing and annoy people

is repeated talk that often criticizes or overexplains rather than just complains
to blather
vsto belabor
  • Informal
12 8.0

To talk a lot in a silly way that makes little sense

is repetitive criticism or unnecessary long discussion rather than pointless babble
to prattle
vsto belabor
11 8.4

To talk on and on in a silly way about unimportant things

focuses on criticizing or overlong treatment of a subject rather than foolish small talk
to prate
vsto belabor
  • Literature
2 9.9

To talk for a long time about things that do not matter

is unnecessary long criticism or repeated focus on a subject rather than mere trivia
to dilate
vsto belabor
  • Formal
1 7.5

To talk or write for a long time about a subject

is negative, repeated long talk often aimed at criticism rather than neutral explanation

Antonyms

to summarize
  • US
87 3.0

Present the main points of a text in a short, clear way

How Repetitive

to harp on
  • Informal
25 6.7
to belabor
  • US
10 8.1
to dwell on
71 5.2
to discuss
∞ 1.6
to talk about
∞ 1.3
to mention
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

belabor infinitive
belabored past
belabored past participle
belaboring present participle
belabors third person singular

Morphology

belabor = labor (transparent) = be + labor

The meaning 'to work at or overdo (a point)' follows directly from 'labor' (work) with the intensive/causative 'be-' construction, so learners who know 'labor' can infer this sense.

Etymology

Belabor also comes from be- and labor ('work'), and a helpful image is someone 'working' a point until it is worn out. So to belabor an idea is to talk about or criticize it too much, repeating the same point again and again.