characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace"
Used in a Sentence
backbreaking
How to use backbreaking in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for backbreaking.
Editorial note
$180 is a lot if you don't have a lot of money, but it's hardly backbreaking.
Examples8
Definitions1
Parts of speech1
Quick take
characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace"
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of backbreaking gathered in one view.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for backbreaking.
adjective
characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace"
Example sentences
$180 is a lot if you don't have a lot of money, but it's hardly backbreaking.
Just because a sweatshop may be better than backbreaking farm work, doesn't mean we can't care about what is happening in sweatshops. Also, it's "Daisey".
He pays them minimum wage for this backbreaking work. They go home with blistered hands, crinks in their backs, and barely enough money to afford groceries for the week.
"Just because a sweatshop may be better than backbreaking farm work, doesn't mean we can't care about what is happening in sweatshops." It's not that we don't care about what's happening in sweatshops.
You should be commended for your backbreaking charity move there, but I'm not sure there was anything "great" about Cherry's goal. Was it really anything more than building a better lemonade stand?
Hard work" may be required at times but it doesn't have to look anything like 80 hour weeks, or stress, or repetitive tasks, or backbreaking manual labor. It's possible for knowledge workers to work hard by only putting in 4 hours a week and going home to their lives and families happy, content, and unstressed.
We remember it as an era where most everyone was tied to the land and eked out their lives doing backbreaking labor. As for whether the service economy can replace the manufacturing economy, I don't think that's a question we need to speculate on.
These are awful, tedious, soul-destroying jobs, but they're just marginally better than backbreaking agricultural labour. Nobody deserves to do those jobs and soon nobody will have to, because we will have automated them out of existence.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use backbreaking in a sentence?
$180 is a lot if you don't have a lot of money, but it's hardly backbreaking.
What does backbreaking mean?
characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace"
What part of speech is backbreaking?
backbreaking is commonly used as adjective.