grueling

adjective

gru·​el·​ing ˈgrü-ə-liŋ 

variants or gruelling

: trying or taxing to the point of exhaustion : punishing

a grueling race

gruelingly

ˈgrü-ə-liŋ-lē 

adverb

Synonyms

• arduous
• Augean
• backbreaking
• challenging
• demanding
• difficult
• effortful
• exacting
• formidable
• hard
• heavy
• hellacious
• herculean
• killer
• laborious
• moiling
• murderous
• pick-and-shovel
• rigorous
• rough
• rugged
• severe
• stiff
• strenuous
• sweaty
• tall
• testing
• toilsome
• tough
• uphill

Examples of grueling in a Sentence

running a marathon is grueling

cutting diamonds can be grueling work

Recent Examples on the Web

In the final months of the election, other Californians are volunteering to door knock in Arizona and Nevada in quick, grueling journeys. —Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2024

And cowboys, working the grueling cattle drives, came to embody values linked to the frontier: self-reliance, strength and independence. —Hannah Cutting-Jones, The Conversation, 23 Oct. 2024

Exhausted and hungry, the prospectors stumbled into Dawson City in the late summer of 1898 after a grueling journey—and found what must have seemed a mirage. —Melanie Haiken, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024

The gaffe sparked questions about how a dedicated student in the grueling first year of law school would have time to hit up multiple events at New York Fashion Week. —Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 22 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

from present participle of obsolete gruel to exhaust, punish, from gruel, noun

First Known Use

1852, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

grueling

adjective

gru·​el·​ing

variants or gruelling

ˈgrü-ə-liŋ 

: requiring extreme effort : exhausting