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arduous

arduous

3 definitions found for arduous

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Those arduous paths they trod.        --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Attended with great labor, like the ascending of
        acclivities; difficult; laborious; as, an arduous
        employment, task, or enterprise.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     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."
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) :

  arduous
      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"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  68 Moby Thesaurus words for "arduous":
     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