How to Use labored in a Sentence

labored

adjective
  • The movie's dialogue seems very labored.
  • The patient's symptoms included a rapid pulse and labored breathing.
  • That’s when the fevers were highest and my breathing was most labored.
    — Christopher Chen, STAT, 28 Aug. 2020
  • Fall would't be fall without a labored search for the world’s best topcoat.
    — Liza Corsillo, GQ, 20 Oct. 2017
  • And labored breathing in dogs could be a sign of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
    — Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 18 June 2024
  • Rapid heart rate and labored breathing are signals that things are getting worse.
    — Barbara Gordon, idahostatesman, 10 July 2017
  • Harvie watched on the screen as her father’s breathing became more labored.
    — Washington Post, 1 Oct. 2021
  • Limón’s works can creep into a labored piousness; this was alive.
    — Gia Kourlas, New York Times, 3 May 2017
  • At one point, his blood pressure dropped, and his breathing became labored.
    — Jan Ransom, ProPublica, 21 Apr. 2020
  • There is something so old-fashioned about it, so labored, so stagecraft.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 23 Nov. 2021
  • Each time that was followed by short, seemingly labored breaths.
    — NBC News, 20 Nov. 2020
  • Lugo pitched five innings but labored.
    — Kansas City Star, 4 Apr. 2026
  • The mechanics that are required to get into this mess are a bit labored.
    — Esther Zuckerman, IndieWire, 29 Jan. 2025
  • Mora said labored breathing is a sign that a child is having trouble with this virus.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN, 23 Oct. 2022
  • The problem is that his shooting motion often looks slow and labored.
    — Connor Letourneau, SFChronicle.com, 17 Dec. 2020
  • For the first time in a labored, legal process, Weichel disagreed with them.
    — Globe Columnist, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Oct. 2022
  • His movements were so labored that some questioned whether Looney’s career soon could be over.
    — Connor Letourneau, SFChronicle.com, 8 June 2020
  • His breathing had become labored.
    — Caleb Crain, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
  • The recording of the voice-over was in a sense more of a labored experience than the filming.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 30 June 2026
  • But his breathing became labored and his oxygen levels dropped.
    — Star Tribune, 23 May 2021
  • Krishna is again wheezing and huddled next to a vapor machine to ease his labored breathing.
    — Washington Post, 15 Nov. 2021
  • The most startling part of the costume is the mask, with its severe and labored expression.
    — Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Dec. 2024
  • The back end is a rather labored effort to extract leadership lessons from their careers.
    — Philip Delves Broughton, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2018
  • Lots of labored stuff about riding a buggy or a cart with all sorts of people dressed in costume running around him.
    — Bill Wyman, Vulture, 28 Feb. 2025
  • But the playing is so yanked around rhythmically that the music sounds labored.
    — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2020
  • Her breathing changed and became more labored, her eyes on me but not seeing, her anger distracting her guilt.
    — Matthew Klam, Esquire, 4 June 2017
  • Behind a glass door, a man’s chest and abdomen were rising and falling rapidly, his body wracked by labored breaths.
    — Lauren Caruba, ExpressNews.com, 28 June 2020
  • In the course of forty-eight hours, his breathing became increasingly labored.
    — Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker, 19 July 2021
  • On its own, the image has an all-at-once clarity that makes verbal description feel labored.
    — Washington Post, 9 Oct. 2019
  • Hear a song in your head to drown out all the labored breathing, then ride the downhill into Manhattan.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 4 Nov. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'labored.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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