Overlabour

//ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈleɪbə(ɹ)// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Excessive labour. uncountable

    "a disease which he had brought upon himself, by his over-labour at a Siege"

Verb
  1. 1
    To cause to labour excessively; to overwork. transitive

    "But over labour'd with ſo long a Courſe, Tis time to ſet at eaſe the ſmoaking Horſe."

  2. 2
    To labour upon excessively; to refine unduly. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
forwork

Example

More examples

"a disease which he had brought upon himself, by his over-labour at a Siege"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From over- + labour (noun).

Etymology 2

From Middle English over-labouren, equivalent to over- + labour (verb).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.