onerous

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

adj. difficult, troublesome, burdensome, wearing, oppressive. See difficulty.Ant., light, easy.

II

(Roget's IV) modif.

Syn. oppressive, burdensome, heavy, serious, exacting, demanding, galling, troublesome, formidable, grinding, laborious, strenuous, tedious, tiresome, hard, embittering, arduous, plodding, backbreaking, grueling, toilsome, cumbersome, weighty, ponderous, responsible, rigorous, severe, vexatious, harsh, painful, overpowering, crushing, excessive, merciless, overtaxing, taxing, fatiguing, pressing, tiring, exhausting, intolerable, austere, causing care, irksome, distressing, grievous, heartbreaking, afflictive; see also difficult 1 , 2 .

Ant. easy*, light, trifling.

Syn.- onerous applies to that which is laborious or troublesome, often because of its annoying or tedious character [ the onerous task of taking inventory ] ; burdensome applies to that which is wearisome or oppressive to the mind or spirit as well as to the body [burdensome responsibilities ] ; oppressive suggests a hardship that weighs heavily on the mind, spirits, or senses, or stresses the overbearing cruelty of the person or thing that inflicts the hardship [oppressive weather, an oppressive king ] ; exacting suggests the making of Great demands on the attention, skill, care, etc. [ an exacting supervisor, exacting work ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) (VOCABULARY WORD) a.

[OHN ur us]

burdensome, laborious or oppressive.

We were given the onerous task of mowing all thirty acres.

SYN.: burdensome, laborious, oppressive, troublesome, difficult, arduous, formidable, demanding, wearisome.

ANT.: easy, effortless, painless, trouble-free

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) adjective Requiring great or extreme bodily, mental, or spiritual strength: arduous, backbreaking, burdensome, demanding, difficult, effortful, exacting, exigent, formidable, hard, heavy, laborious, oppressive, rigorous, rough, severe, taxing, tough, trying, weighty. See HEAVY.