Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use laborious in a sentence

14 example sentences · adjective

Laborious means requiring much physical effort; toilsome. Example: “The mute swan, being one of the world's heaviest flying birds, can have a laborious takeoff.”

Examples of laborious by meaning

adjectiveRequiring much physical effort; toilsome.

  • Let us face it, our lives are miserable, laborious, and short.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter I, in Animal...
  • The transhipment is a rather laborious business, the coal being shovelled by hand from one wagon to another.1951 May, R. K. Kirkland, “The Cavan & Leitrim Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 343

More sentences with laborious

  • The mute swan, being one of the world's heaviest flying birds, can have a laborious takeoff.From the entry takeoff
  • Aquatint is a laborious process that involves acids and resistants and emphasizes tone over line.2023, Justin Torres, Blackouts, Granta Books (2024), page 287. From the entry aquatint
  • Laborious experiment to discover the facts about our environment is wearisome to all but a persistent few.2014, Eric Temple Bell, The Magic of Numbers - Page 76. From the entry blundersome
  • Propelling the packet-boat up the stream was the most laborious and dangerous employment which can be imagined.2009, John McDonald, Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, page 85. From the entry packet-boat
  • That touched all, in a slow, laborious search of the throng.1997 [1929], Cherry Wilson, “The Wallflower” (chapter XV), in Thunder Brakes, Firecrest Publishing Limited, page 164. From the entry fireful
  • He had thought of making a destiny for himself, through laborious and untiring travail.1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 38. From the entry travail
  • Systemists tend to be clumpers, but it should be very risky for them to ingnore the laborious works of the splitters.2011, Charles François, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, page 90. From the entry clumper
  • That this method is so laborious may be the reason for the invention of the Qabalistic rule Colel.2000, David Allen Hulse, The Eastern Mysteries: An Encyclopedic Guide, page xxviii. From the entry rule of Colel
  • This is because of the increased pulling power of the retro jet which would make manual retraction unduly laborious.1980, Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants Operator's Newsletter. From the entry hydropump
  • Pfau by repeated crystallisation from chloroform, in which chloroatranorin was sparingly soluble, was laborious and incomplete over a number of stages.1963, Journal of the Indian Chemical Society, volume 40, page 8. From the entry chloroatranorin
  • Hoover's laborious efforts to play both sides against the middle.1932, George Jean Nathan, Henry Louis Mencken, The American Mercury, page 383. From the entry play both sides against the middle
  • Instead of the heavy, unwielding implement formerly used, entailing very unpleasant laborious work, there is now an iron table, the top of which is magnetized.1908, Illustrated World ... - Volume 9, page 146. From the entry unwielding

Meaning of laborious

  1. adjective Requiring much physical effort; toilsome.
  2. adjective Mentally difficult; painstaking.
  3. adjective Industrious.

Full definition of laborious

Questions about laborious in a sentence

How do you use laborious in a sentence?
Laborious is used as an adjective. For example: “The mute swan, being one of the world's heaviest flying birds, can have a laborious takeoff.”
What is a short sentence with laborious?
“Hoover's laborious efforts to play both sides against the middle.”
What does laborious mean?
Laborious means requiring much physical effort; toilsome.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laborious (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use laborious in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/laborious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.