| Library / English Dictionary |
TEDIOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Using or containing too many words
Example:
proceedings were delayed by wordy disputes
Synonyms:
long-winded; tedious; verbose; windy; wordy
Classified under:
Similar:
prolix (tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length)
Derivation:
tediousness (dullness owing to length or slowness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness
Example:
other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome
Synonyms:
boring; deadening; dull; ho-hum; irksome; slow; tedious; tiresome; wearisome
Classified under:
Similar:
uninteresting (arousing no interest or attention or curiosity or excitement)
Derivation:
tediousness; tedium (dullness owing to length or slowness)
tedium (the feeling of being bored by something tedious)
Context examples:
I am afraid you have had a tedious ride; John drives so slowly; you must be cold, come to the fire.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The first part of their journey was performed in too melancholy a disposition to be otherwise than tedious and unpleasant.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
I fear, my friend, that I shall render myself tedious by dwelling on these preliminary circumstances; but they were days of comparative happiness, and I think of them with pleasure.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
In pleading, they studiously avoid entering into the merits of the cause; but are loud, violent, and tedious, in dwelling upon all circumstances which are not to the purpose.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Catherine was with her friend again the next day, endeavouring to support her spirits and while away the many tedious hours before the delivery of the letters; a needful exertion, for as the time of reasonable expectation drew near, Isabella became more and more desponding, and before the letter arrived, had worked herself into a state of real distress.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
It was very hard, but I turned back, though with a heavy heart, and began laboriously and methodically to plod over the same tedious ground at a snail's pace; stopping to examine minutely every speck in the way, on all sides, and making the most desperate efforts to know these elusive characters by sight wherever I met them.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
This note went the round of the committee, and at last, after what appeared to me most tedious delay, formal leave was given me to better my condition if I could; and an assurance added, that as I had always conducted myself well, both as teacher and pupil, at Lowood, a testimonial of character and capacity, signed by the inspectors of that institution, should forthwith be furnished me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She nursed Madame Frankenstein, my aunt, in her last illness, with the greatest affection and care and afterwards attended her own mother during a tedious illness, in a manner that excited the admiration of all who knew her, after which she again lived in my uncle’s house, where she was beloved by all the family.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
It would be tedious to relate the several steps by which I advanced to a more regular conversation; but the first account I gave of myself in any order and length was to this purpose: That I came from a very far country, as I already had attempted to tell him, with about fifty more of my own species; that we travelled upon the seas in a great hollow vessel made of wood, and larger than his honour’s house.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The pressing anxieties of thought, which prevented her from noticing anything before her, when once beyond the neighbourhood of Woodston, saved her at the same time from watching her progress; and though no object on the road could engage a moment's attention, she found no stage of it tedious.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
