grueling
UK/ˈɡɹuː.lɪŋ//ˈɡɹu.lɪŋ/
grueling is the alternative spelling of gruelling.
grueling is the present participle and gerund of gruel.
Meaning of gruelling
Adjective
gruelling (comparative more gruelling, superlative most gruelling)
- Very difficult or taxing; exhausting; backbreaking.
- Diggle Station lies high up in the Pennine Chain, subject to extreme low temperatures. With this and heavy snowfall in the winter months, Diggle bids fair to compete with the Scottish lines under similar weather conditions, and the provision of unfrozen water in the higher ambient temperature of...1959 February, “Letters to the Editor: Diggle Water Troughs”, in Railway Magazine, page 135
- Synonyms:
- backbreaking, exhausting, taxing
Meaning of gruel
Verb
gruel (third-person singular simple present gruels, present participle (US) grueling or (UK) gruelling, simple past and past participle (US) grueled or (UK) gruelled)
Forms of grueling
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more grueling |
| superlative | most grueling |
| Noun | |
| plural | gruelings |
Words formed from grueling
Questions about grueling
- What is grueling the alternative spelling of?
- Grueling is the alternative spelling of gruelling.
- How do you pronounce grueling?
- Grueling is pronounced /ˈɡɹuː.lɪŋ/ (UK).
Words near grueling in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: grueling (page history and authors); gruelling (page history and authors); gruel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-gruelling.ogg, en-au-gruelling.ogg.
Cite this entry: “grueling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grueling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.