onerous

Definition

Imposing or constituting a physical, mental, or figurative load which can be borne only with effort; burdensome.

Etymology

From Middle English onerous, from Middle French onereux, from Old French onereus, from Latin onerosus (“burdensome”), from onus (“load”). Compare exonerate.

Example Sentences

• "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."
• "Again, and more intensely than ever, she desired a fixed occupation,—no matter how onerous, how irksome."
• "[I]t has become an onerous duty, a wearisome and distasteful task."