labored

1. 1
   worked hardverb

   Simple past tense and past participle of labor.

   The committee labored over every detail of the proposal.

   They had labored for years before the orchard finally bore fruit.

   Note

   A regular verb form, so one spelling does double duty. It stands alone in the simple past (they labored all night) and follows have or had in the perfect (they had labored for years). Because labor is the American standard spelling of labour, British writing gives laboured here. The same spelling also serves the adjective for strained effort, so a labored speech describes the speech rather than reporting an action.

2. 2
   strainedadjective

   Showing signs of strenuous effort or strain.

   Paramedics noticed his labored breathing and gave him oxygen.

   The engine's labored groan grew louder as the truck climbed the grade.

   Similarstrained, difficult, heavy

   Oppositeeasy, effortless

   Note

   The word describes effort as an onlooker meets it, through sound and sight: a runner's breath at the end of a marathon, an engine groaning up a steep grade. "Her labored breathing told us she was exhausted" is the typical shape, with the adjective serving as evidence of a state. It reads as a warning sign, not as praise for hard work.

3. 3
   unnaturaladjective

   Of writing, speech, and the like: stiff and unnatural because too much effort went into producing it.

   The novel's labored prose makes even the action scenes feel slow.

   Critics found the film's central metaphor labored and heavy-handed.

   Similarforced, stilted, contrived, strained, stiff

   Oppositenatural, effortless, fluent

   Note

   A critic's word, and never a compliment. The fault it names is effort that shows: a labored joke is one you can watch being assembled, and labored prose sounds worked over rather than written. It is the strain of the "heavy breathing" meaning moved from the body to style, so what is admirable in a runner becomes a flaw in a sentence.

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