Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective So difficult or taxing as to make one exhausted; backbreaking.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Instead of giving their chapters proper titles, these worthy gentlemen simply slap a character’s name at the top of a fresh page, followed by his or her inmost thoughts and experiences in gruelling detail.

    Quakers in Spain superversive 2006

  • Like most top chefs, his lifestyle could already be described as gruelling, starting work at 7am and finishing at 11pm after dinner.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • Like most top chefs, his lifestyle could already be described as gruelling, starting work at 7am and finishing at 11pm after dinner.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • Like most top chefs, his lifestyle could already be described as gruelling, starting work at 7am and finishing at 11pm after dinner.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • Like most top chefs, his lifestyle could already be described as gruelling, starting work at 7am and finishing at 11pm after dinner.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • Like most top chefs, his lifestyle could already be described as gruelling, starting work at 7am and finishing at 11pm after dinner.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • Like most top chefs, his lifestyle could already be described as gruelling, starting work at 7am and finishing at 11pm after dinner.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • Multiple call-backs are rare and long "gruelling" auditions even rarer.

    Loyalty Steve Hulett 2008

  • From what I know of Ellroy's life, I can imagine that "gruelling" understates the case.

    :Acquired Taste Tim Stretton 2007

  • February 8, 1922, BOSTON HERALD: A "gruelling" examination, as the police employ the term, is one expected to put its recipient in the soup.

    Hollywood scandal: The nation's newspapers respond - BatesLine 2005

Comments

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  • There is a noun 'gruelling' with the plural 'gruellings'. If the police interrogate someone intensely we may say that they gave him a 'gruelling'. If that happens more than once they are 'gruellings'.

    June 5, 2012

  • That noun is grilling.

    June 6, 2012

  • Although, I suppose, if you added some oatmeal to the waterboarding...

    June 6, 2012