laborious

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old French laborios, from Latin laboriosus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ləˈbɔːɹiəs/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔːɹiəs

Adjective

laborious (comparative more laborious, superlative most laborious)

  1. Requiring much physical effort; toilsome.
    • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Animal Farm [], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC, page 7:
      Let us face it, our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.
    • 1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 343:
      The coal is then transferred to broad-gauge wagons for transport to Dublin. The transhipment is a rather laborious business, the coal being shovelled by hand from one wagon to another.
  2. Mentally difficult; painstaking.
  3. Industrious.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. [], London: [] Jacob Tonson, [], →OCLC, page 129, lines 241–242:
      All, with united Force, combine to drive / The lazy Drones from the laborious Hive.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

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