onerous
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Latin onerosus (“burdensome”), from onus (“load”).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
onerous (comparative more onerous, superlative most onerous)
- Burdensome; imposing or constituting a physical, mental, or figurative load which can be borne only with effort.
- 1820, Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow":
- That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable.
- 1848, Charlotte Brontë, Shirley, ch. 13:
- Again, and more intensely than ever, she desired a fixed occupation,—no matter how onerous, how irksome.
- 1910, Jack London, "The Golden Poppy" in Revolution and Other Essays:
- [I]t has become an onerous duty, a wearisome and distasteful task.
- 1820, Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow":
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Related terms
Terms etymologically related to onerous
