overlabour

English

Alternative forms

• overlabor

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈleɪbə(ɹ)/

Etymology 1

From over- +‎ labour (noun).

Noun

overlabour (uncountable)

1. Excessive labour.
   • 1684, John Dryden, The History of the League, translation of Histoire de la Ligue by Louis Maimbourg:

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

Etymology 2

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

Verb

overlabour (third-person singular simple present overlabours, present participle overlabouring, simple past and past participle overlaboured)

1. (transitive) To cause to labour excessively; to overwork.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Second Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: [...] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 95:

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

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

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “overlabour”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)