Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Characterized by or requiring toil.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Attended with toil; demanding or compelling toil; laborious; fatiguing.
  • Synonyms Onerous, tedious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Attended with toil, or fatigue and pain; laborious; wearisome.

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

  • adjective requiring continuous physical effort; laborious

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

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Examples

  • For they strive by a kind of toilsome exercise of the body itself to root out those lusts that are hurtful to the body, that is, those habits and affections of the soul that lead to the enjoyment of unworthy objects.

    On Christian Doctrine, in Four Books Saint Augustine 1887

  • And the men jumped, though in their weakness the climb aloft was slow and toilsome; and when the gaskets were off the topgallant-sails and the men on deck were hoisting yards and sheeting home, those aloft were loosing the royals.

    CHAPTER XL 2010

  • Often, when wearied by a toilsome march, I persuaded myself that I was dreaming until night should come, and that I should then enjoy reality in the arms of my dearest friends.

    Chapter 24 2010

  • Often, when wearied by a toilsome march, I persuaded myself that I was dreaming until night should come, and that I should then enjoy reality in the arms of my dearest friends.

    Chapter 7 2010

  • They found themselves better off in their idle old days under the new regime, enjoying vastly more pleasures and comforts than they had in their busy and toilsome youth under the old regime.

    Goliah 2010

  • While the princelings use their "royal" connections, a significant amount of China's population is trapped in rural poverty or toilsome factory labor with minimal chances of social mobility.

    Howard Steven Friedman: Is China Poised for Implosion? What Would the Communist Manifesto Predict? 2010

  • One hundred fifty years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, the French historian and author of Democracy in America, wrote: "I (fear) that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all."

    Esther Wojcicki: Revolution Needed for Teaching Literacy in a Digital Age 2010

  • I thought the local kids would grow tired of their toilsome exchanges with Noah -- the hand signals and the maddening misinterpretations -- but every morning Chambo and company would emerge from their shanties ready to engage.

    Norman Ollestad: Father's Day: Sole Survivor Of A Plane Crash At 11 Grows Up To Teach His Son To Face His Fears 2010

  • I thought the local kids would grow tired of their toilsome exchanges with Noah -- the hand signals and the maddening misinterpretations -- but every morning Chambo and company would emerge from their shanties ready to engage.

    Norman Ollestad: Father's Day: Sole Survivor Of A Plane Crash At 11 Grows Up To Teach His Son To Face His Fears Norman Ollestad 2010

  • I doubt that Gillian Duffy deserved to be called a bigot, even privately, but I feel some sympathy for any politician who, toward the end of a toilsome campaign, snaps back a bit at the public he thinks is about to bite him at the ballot box.

    The Two Faces Of Gordon Brown 2010

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