overlabour

overlabour

English

Alternative forms

• overlabor

Etymology

over- +‎ labour

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvə(ɹ)ˈleɪbə(ɹ)/

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

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 403869432:

     over-labour'd with so long a course,
     'Tis time to set at ease the smoking 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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 under overlabor in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)