Synonyms:
arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, hard, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome
Meaning: characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace"
Usage examples
They found the work less arduous than they had expected.
From the Qu'Appelle westward the journey grew more arduous.
"Too arduous it shall not be--that shall be my concern; and too irksome I hope you will not find it.
The grotto party are making headway into the ice for our larder, but it is slow and very arduous work.
All they did was to perform their dirty, arduous toil, eat poorly; they were miserably clad, addicted to drunkenness.
Had he gained this arduous height only to behold the rocks carpeted with ice and snow, and reaching interminably to the far-off horizon?
In this age of the arduous pursuit of peace, prosperity and pleasure, the smallest contribution to the gaiety, if not to the wisdom, of nations can scarcely be unwelcome.
The enterprise would be far more arduous if it were deferred till the King, by remodelling boroughs and regiments, had procured a Parliament and an army on which he could rely.
The way was growing more and more arduous, the ascent steeper and steeper; the loose fragments of rock trembled beneath us, and the utmost care was needed to avoid dangerous falls.
Is it, haply, an idle occupation, or is the time ill-spent that is spent in roaming the world in quest, not of its enjoyments, but of those arduous toils whereby the good mount upwards to the abodes of everlasting life?