Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Causing physical or mental fatigue; tedious or tiresome.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Causing weariness; tiresome; tedious; irksome; monotonous: as, a wearisome march; a wearisome day's work.
  • Synonyms Wearisome, Fatiguing, Tiresome, Tedious, Irksome, prolix, humdrum, prosy, dull. Wearisome and fatiguing are essentially the same in meaning and strength; they are equally appropriate whether the person acts or is acted upon: as, the old man was so deaf that it was equally wearisome (or fatiguing) to speak and to be spoken to. Tiresome is more often used where one is acted upon; in strength it is the same as wearisome. Tedious is stronger than wearisome, and suggests the need of constant effort of the will to do or to endure; the weariness may be, physical or mental r as, a tedious task; a tedious headache; tedious garrulity. Tedious suggests commonly that one is acted upon; irksome suggests that one acts or is called upon to act, and implies also a peculiar reluctance. In Shak., 2 Hen. VI., ii. 1. 56, is an example of the rarer use of irksome to express a wearied shrinking from being acted upon: “How irksome is this music to my heart!” See fatigue, n., and tire, transitive verb

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Causing weariness; tiresome; tedious; weariful.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Tiresome, tedious or causing fatigue.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • I also had the misfortune of meeting here a very learned man of a very wearisome kind; he knew the names of ten thousand shells by heart, and I was obliged to listen to him for two hours, although I was totally ignorant of his science.

    ---Memoirs of Casanova

    November 11, 2007