labored

[ley-berd]

adjective

1. done or made with difficulty; heavy.

   labored breathing.

   Antonyms: easy, simple

2. exhibiting a great deal of effort; lacking grace, fluency, or spontaneity.

   a labored prose style.

   Synonyms: stiff, unnatural, ornate, overdone
   Antonyms: natural, plain

Other Word Forms

• laboredly adverb
• laboredness noun
• unlabored adjective
• well-labored adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of labored¹

First recorded in 1525–35; labor + -ed ²

Synonym Study

See elaborate.

Example Sentences

Conservatives denounced these cases and many more as profound violations of the Constitution’s words and as betrayals of the originalist methodology that conservative judges and lawyers had labored to create.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

I’m four months out from my hospital stay, and sometimes still experience labored breathing.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In his book on the Gettysburg Address, Garry Wills judged the address “comic,” “showy” and “labored.”

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Sanders stays on the move, with his walking appearing a bit more labored as practice continues.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

May added that Tole “can speak right now, but it’s just so slurred and so labored for him, just because of all the trauma to his mouth and cheek.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• arduous 
• awkward 
• clumsy 
• contrived 
• ponderous 
• strained