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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

backbreaking en · ADJ

Etymology

From back + breaking.

Meanings

  1. (figuratively) Of work, very physically tiring.
    • Ahead [...] each woman is stooped beneath a backbreaking load of firewood. 2019, Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King, Canongate Books (2020), page 110:
    • A few keen enginemen, such as Driver Rosewarne of York, could coax good work out of them when engaged in heavy East Coast express service, but to most footplate crews, especially firemen, they were rather heartbreaking and backbreaking machines, and gradually were relegated to secondary or fast goods duties. 1949 May and June, R. A. H. Weight, “A Short-Lived Pacific Class”, in Railway Magazine, page 196:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more backbreaking Degree=Cmp lexicographic
back-breaking alternative lexicographic
most backbreaking Degree=Sup lexicographic

Deriveds

backbreakingly

Translations (9)

pl arcytrudny (of work, very physically tiring) · is erfiður (of work, very physically tiring) · is lýjandi (of work, very physically tiring) · it massacrante (of work, very physically tiring) · hu kimerítő (of work, very physically tiring) · hu fárasztó (of work, very physically tiring) · fr éreintant (of work, very physically tiring) · it estenuante (of work, very physically tiring) · fi uuvuttava (of work, very physically tiring)