gru ‧ el ‧ ling BrE AmE British English , grueling American English /ˈɡruː ə lɪŋ/ adjective
[ Date: 1800-1900 ; Origin: gruel 'to punish' (1800-1900) , from gruel 'food' ; because people were given gruel as a punishment ]
very difficult and tiring:
The cast took a break from their gruelling schedule.
a grueling journey
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THESAURUS
▪ tiring making you feel that you want to sleep or rest:
The journey was really tiring.
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I’ve had such a tiring day.
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It was tiring work.
▪ exhausting extremely tiring:
I had to drive nine hours without a break – it was exhausting.
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an exhausting week of singing, acting, and dancing
▪ hard very tiring and difficult – used about days, journeys etc:
a hard day at work
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The last part of the journey was very hard.
▪ wearing /ˈweərɪŋ $ ˈwer-/ tiring because you have to use a lot of your mental energy, and often become bored – used about people, situations etc:
I find her constant questions rather wearing.
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Kids of that age can be very wearing.
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His films always tend to have the same plots, which does get rather wearing after a while.
▪ gruelling British English , grueling American English ( also punishing ) very tiring physically or mentally – used when you have to keep doing something for a long time:
a gruelling journey across the desert
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a gruelling race
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a punishing schedule
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a punishing exercise regime
▪ backbreaking backbreaking work is extremely tiring and needs a lot of physical effort:
Clearing the land was slow backbreaking work.
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Laborers were paid $2 a day for backbreaking farm work.
▪ something is a killer informal used when saying that something is extremely tiring:
Today was a real killer.
▪ fatiguing formal making you feel very tired:
Factory work was repetitive and fatiguing.