Definition of "labored" []

• Produced or done with effort: the labored breathing of a very ill person. (adjective)
• Lacking natural ease; strained: a labored style of debating. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It was important to find out how the noise is made, she explained in labored tones."
• "She paused, descending into some distant, nether reverie, and stared at the fish as if in labored communication with it."
• "Brad DeLong of the University of California, Berkeley, who thinks the Fed should do much more, complained, "The mountain labored and gave birth to a mouse.""