laborious

English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

From Old French laborios, from Latin laboriosus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ləˈbɔːɹiəs/

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• Rhymes: -ɔːɹiəs

Adjective

laborious (comparative more laborious, superlative most laborious)

1. Requiring much physical effort; toilsome.
   • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     Let us face it, our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.

2. Mentally difficult; painstaking.
3. Industrious.
   • 1697, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 403869432, lines 241–242, page 129:

     All, with united Force, combine to drive / The lazy Drones from the laborious Hive.

Synonyms

• (requiring effort): painstaking, toilsome, worksome

Derived terms

• laboriously

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, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

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