Adjacent Words

Arduous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ARDUOUS, a. [L. arduus.]
1. High, lofty, in a literal sense; as, arduous paths.
2. Difficult; attended with great labor, like the ascending of acclivities; as, an arduous employment, task, or enterprise.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: 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" [syn: arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, hard, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome]
2: taxing to the utmost; testing powers of endurance; "his final, straining burst of speed"; "a strenuous task"; "your willingness after these six arduous days to remain here"- F.D.Roosevelt [syn: arduous, straining, strenuous]
3: difficult to accomplish; demanding considerable mental effort and skill; "the arduous work of preparing a dictionary"

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin arduus high, steep, difficult; akin to Old Irish ard high Date: 1538 1. a. hard to accomplish or achieve ; difficult <years of arduous training> b. marked by great labor or effort ; strenuous <a life of arduous toil — A. C. Cole> 2. hard to climb ; steep <an arduous path> Synonyms: see hard • arduously adverb • arduousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 hard to achieve or overcome; laborious, strenuous. 2 steep, difficult (an arduous path). Derivatives: arduously adv. arduousness n. Etymology: L arduus steep, difficult

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Arduous Ar"du*ous (?; 135), a. [L. arduus steep, high; akin to Ir. ard high, height.] 1. Steep and lofty, in a literal sense; hard to climb. Those arduous paths they trod. --Pope. 2. Attended with great labor, like the ascending of acclivities; difficult; laborious; as, an arduous employment, task, or enterprise. Syn: Difficult; trying; laborious; painful; exhausting. Usage: Arduous, Hard, Difficult. Hard is simpler, blunter, and more general in sense than difficult; as, a hard duty to perform, hard work, a hard task, one which requires much bodily effort and perseverance to do. Difficult commonly implies more skill and sagacity than hard, as when there is disproportion between the means and the end. A work may be hard but not difficult. We call a thing arduous when it requires strenuous and persevering exertion, like that of one who is climbing a precipice; as, an arduous task, an arduous duty. ``It is often difficult to control our feelings; it is still harder to subdue our will; but it is an arduous undertaking to control the unruly and contending will of others.''

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something that is arduous is difficult and tiring, and involves a lot of effort. The task was more arduous than he had calculated. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Steep, high, lofty, uphill. 2. Hard, difficult, laborious, onerous, troublesome, Herculean, toilsome, tiresome, wearisome, fatiguing, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties.

Moby Thesaurus

Herculean, abrupt, abstruse, backbreaking, brutal, burdensome, complex, critical, crushing, delicate, demanding, difficile, difficult, effortful, energetic, exacting, exhausting, fatiguing, forced, formidable, grueling, hairy, hard, heavy, hefty, intricate, jawbreaking, killing, knotted, knotty, labored, laborious, mean, no picnic, not easy, onerous, operose, oppressive, painful, precipitate, precipitous, punishing, rigorous, rough, rugged, set with thorns, severe, sheer, sideling, spiny, steep, stickle, strained, strenuous, taxing, thorny, ticklish, tiring, toilsome, tough, tricksy, tricky, troublesome, trying, uphill, vigorous, wearisome, wicked