1.
[syn: arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, hard, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
grueling \grueling\, gruelling \gruelling\adj.
1. characterized by toilsome effort; requiring extreme
physical or mental effort; as, a grueling campaign.
Syn: arduous, backbreaking, back-breaking, exhausting,
gruelling, hard, heavy, laborious, labourious,
punishing, slavish, strenuous, toilsome.
[WordNet 1.5]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
grueling
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]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
60 Moby Thesaurus words for "grueling":
Herculean, annoying, arduous, backbreaking, besetting, bothersome,
burdensome, castigatory, chastening, chastising, corrective,
crushing, devitalizing, disciplinary, draining, effortful,
enervating, enfeebling, exhausting, fatiguesome, fatiguing, forced,
hard-earned, hard-fought, heavy, hefty, inflictive, irksome,
killing, labored, laborious, onerous, operose, oppressive, painful,
penal, penological, plaguey, punishing, punitive, punitory,
retributive, sapping, strained, straining, strenuous, stressful,
tiresome, tiring, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, uphill,
vexatious, weakening, weariful, wearing, wearisome, wearying