laborious

English

Alternative forms

• labourious (obsolete)
• laborous (obsolete)
• labourous (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French laborios, from Latin laboriosus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ləˈbɔːɹiəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (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

• (requiring effort): painstaking, toilsome, worksome

Derived terms

• laboriously
• laboriousness

Related terms

• labor, labour

Translations

requiring much physical effort

• Bulgarian: труден (bg) (truden), напрегнат (bg) (napregnat)
• Catalan: laboriós
• Czech: pracný
• Dutch: bewerkelijk (nl), arbeidsintensief (nl), laborieus (nl)
• French: laborieux (fr)
• German: arbeitsintensiv
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἐπίπονος (epíponos), μογερός (mogerós)

• Irish: saothrach
• Italian: laborioso (it)
• Latin: labōriōsus
• Old English: earfoþe
• Polish: pracochłonny (pl), mozolny (pl)
• Portuguese: laborioso (pt), trabalhoso (pt)
• Romanian: laborios (ro)
• Russian: трудоёмкий (ru) (trudojómkij), тру́дный (ru) (trúdnyj), тяжёлый (ru) (tjažólyj), напряжённый (ru) (naprjažónnyj), утоми́тельный (ru) (utomítelʹnyj)
• Spanish: laborioso (es)
• Swedish: mödosam (sv), tung (sv)

mentally difficult

• Bulgarian: мъчен (bg) (mǎčen)
• Russian: кропотли́вый (ru) (kropotlívyj)

industrious — see industrious

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Norman: ^{(please verify)} pénibl'ye (Jersey)