| Library / English Dictionary |
EXACTING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Requiring precise accuracy
Example:
became more exigent over his pronunciation
Synonyms:
exacting; exigent
Classified under:
Similar:
demanding (requiring more than usually expected or thought due; especially great patience and effort and skill)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Severe and unremitting in making demands
Example:
strict standards
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
demanding (requiring more than usually expected or thought due; especially great patience and effort and skill)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Having complicated nutritional requirements; especially growing only in special artificial cultures
Example:
certain highly specialized xerophytes are extremely exacting in their requirements
Synonyms:
exacting; fastidious
Classified under:
Adjectives
Domain category:
microbiology (the branch of biology that studies microorganisms and their effects on humans)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb exact
Context examples:
Then, in the first place, do you agree with me that I have a right to be a little masterful, abrupt, perhaps exacting, sometimes, on the grounds I stated, namely, that I am old enough to be your father, and that I have battled through a varied experience with many men of many nations, and roamed over half the globe, while you have lived quietly with one set of people in one house?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I found him a very patient, very forbearing, and yet an exacting master: he expected me to do a great deal; and when I fulfilled his expectations, he, in his own way, fully testified his approbation.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child—though equally dependent and friendless—Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more complacently; her children would have entertained for me more of the cordiality of fellow-feeling; the servants would have been less prone to make me the scapegoat of the nursery.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I grew impatient: a restless movement or two, and an eager and exacting glance fastened on his face, conveyed the feeling to him as effectually as words could have done, and with less trouble.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
These were vile discoveries; but except for the treachery of concealment, I should have made them no subject of reproach to my wife, even when I found her nature wholly alien to mine, her tastes obnoxious to me, her cast of mind common, low, narrow, and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher, expanded to anything larger—when I found that I could not pass a single evening, nor even a single hour of the day with her in comfort; that kindly conversation could not be sustained between us, because whatever topic I started, immediately received from her a turn at once coarse and trite, perverse and imbecile—when I perceived that I should never have a quiet or settled household, because no servant would bear the continued outbreaks of her violent and unreasonable temper, or the vexations of her absurd, contradictory, exacting orders—even then I restrained myself: I eschewed upbraiding, I curtailed remonstrance; I tried to devour my repentance and disgust in secret; I repressed the deep antipathy I felt.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
