gruelling
[adjective]
Synonyms: exhausting, arduous, backbreaking, demanding, laborious, punishing, severe, strenuous, taxing, tiring

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English Thesaurus: tiring, exhausting, hard, wearing, gruelling, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

gru‧el‧ling British English, grueling American English /ˈɡruːəlɪŋ/ adjective
[Date: 1800-1900; Origin: gruel 'to punish' (1800-1900), from gruel 'food'; because people were given gruel as a punishment]
very difficult and tiring:
The cast took a break from their gruelling schedule.
a grueling journey

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

tiring making you feel that you want to sleep or rest:
The journey was really tiring.
I’ve had such a tiring day.
It was tiring work.
exhausting extremely tiring:
I had to drive nine hours without a break – it was exhausting.
an exhausting week of singing, acting, and dancing
hard very tiring and difficult – used about days, journeys etc:
a hard day at work
The last part of the journey was very hard.
wearing /ˈweərɪŋ $ ˈwer-/ tiring because you have to use a lot of your mental energy, and often become bored – used about people, situations etc:
I find her constant questions rather wearing.
Kids of that age can be very wearing.
His films always tend to have the same plots, which does get rather wearing after a while.
gruelling British English, grueling American English (also punishing) very tiring physically or mentally – used when you have to keep doing something for a long time:
a gruelling journey across the desert
a gruelling race
a punishing schedule
a punishing exercise regime
backbreaking backbreaking work is extremely tiring and needs a lot of physical effort:
Clearing the land was slow backbreaking work.
Laborers were paid $2 a day for backbreaking farm work.
something is a killer informal used when saying that something is extremely tiring:
Today was a real killer.
fatiguing formal making you feel very tired:
Factory work was repetitive and fatiguing.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲