adj
Meaning 1
Of work, very physically tiring.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
backbreaking
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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CMU ARPABET: B AE1 K B R EY2 K IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adjective satellite
Meaning 2
characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- 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
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: arduous, grueling, gruelling, hard, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From back + breaking.
Across languages
Translations
9 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Finnish: uuvuttava — of work, very physically tiring
- French: éreintant — of work, very physically tiring
- Hungarian: fárasztó — of work, very physically tiring
- Hungarian: kimerítő — of work, very physically tiring
- Icelandic: lýjandi — of work, very physically tiring
- Icelandic: erfiður — of work, very physically tiring
- Italian: estenuante — of work, very physically tiring
- Italian: massacrante — of work, very physically tiring
- Polish: arcytrudny — of work, very physically tiring