Adjacent Words

Exacting definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

EXACT'ING, ppr. Demanding and compelling to pay or yield under color of authority; requiring authoritatively; demanding without pity or justice; extorting; compelling by necessity.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: having complicated nutritional requirements; especially growing only in special artificial cultures; "fastidious microorganisms"; "certain highly specialized xerophytes are extremely exacting in their requirements" [syn: fastidious, exacting] [ant: unfastidious]
2: severe and unremitting in making demands; "an exacting instructor"; "a stern disciplinarian"; "strict standards" [syn: stern, strict, exacting]
3: requiring precise accuracy; "an exacting job"; "became more exigent over his pronunciation" [syn: exigent, exacting]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1634 1. tryingly or unremittingly severe in making demands 2. requiring careful attention and precision Synonyms: see onerous • exactingly adverb • exactingness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 making great demands. 2 calling for much effort. Derivatives: exactingly adv. exactingness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Exacting Ex*act"ing, a. Oppressive or unreasonably severe in making demands or requiring the exact fulfillment of obligations; harsh; severe. ``A temper so exacting.'' --T. Arnold -- Ex*act"ing*ly, adv. -- Ex*act"ing*ness, n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Exact Ex*act", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Exacted; p. pr. & vb. n. Exacting.] [From L. exactus, p. p. of exigere; or fr. LL. exactare: cf. OF. exacter. See Exact, a.] To demand or require authoritatively or peremptorily, as a right; to enforce the payment of, or a yielding of; to compel to yield or to furnish; hence, to wrest, as a fee or reward when none is due; -- followed by from or of before the one subjected to exaction; as, to exact tribute, fees, obedience, etc., from or of some one. He said into them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. --Luke. iii. 13. Years of servise past From grateful souls exact reward at last --Dryden. My designs Exact me in another place. --Massinger.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

You use exacting to describe something or someone that demands hard work and a great deal of care. The Duke was not well enough to carry out such an exacting task... ADJ: usu ADJ n

Moby Thesaurus

Herculean, Spartan, Spartanic, abstruse, accurate, arduous, arousing, astringent, attentive, austere, authoritarian, brutal, burdensome, censorious, choicy, choosy, clamant, clamorous, close, complex, conscientious, correct, critical, crying, cutthroat, delicate, demanding, detailed, difficile, difficult, discriminating, discriminative, dour, draining, educible, eductive, elicitory, eradicative, evocative, exact, exactive, excessive, exigent, exorbitant, exquisite, extortionary, extortionate, extortive, extractive, extravagant, fancy, fastidious, fine, finical, finicking, finicky, formidable, fussy, gouging, grasping, grievous, grim, grossly overpriced, hairy, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, harsh, hypercritical, immoderate, imperative, importunate, inflationary, inordinate, insistent, instant, intricate, jawbreaking, knotted, knotty, laborious, loud, mean, meticulous, minute, narrow, nice, no picnic, not easy, operose, oppressive, out of bounds, out of sight, outrageous, overpriced, particular, perfectionistic, persistent, pertinacious, picky, precise, precisianistic, precisionistic, preposterous, pressing, priggish, prohibitive, prudish, punctilious, punctual, puristic, puritanic, refined, religious, rigid, rigorous, rough, rugged, scrupulous, scrutinizing, selective, sensitive, set with thorns, severe, skyrocketing, spiny, spiraling, steep, stern, strenuous, strict, stringent, subtle, taxing, thorny, ticklish, toilsome, tough, tricky, trying, tyrannical, unconscionable, undue, unreasonable, unsparing, unwarranted, uphill, uprooting, urgent, usurious, weighty, wicked