wearisome
Americanadjective
-
causing weariness; fatiguing.
a difficult and wearisome march.
-
tiresome or tedious.
a wearisome person; a wearisome book.
- Antonyms:
- interesting
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of wearisome
First recorded in 1400–50, wearisome is from the late Middle English word werysom. See weary, -some 1
Explanation
Anything that's boring, tedious, or so dull that it puts you to sleep can be described as wearisome. Long bus rides and long classroom lectures can both be wearisome. The adjective wearisome is good for describing things that seem to last forever, that require repetition, or that are otherwise both boring and mentally exhausting. Always being told "Be careful!" by your parents can be wearisome, and typing data into a computer all day is also wearisome. The original, fifteenth century meaning of wearisome was "weary" or "tired," but it quickly came to mean "making one weary," from the Old English root werig, "tired."
Vocabulary lists containing wearisome
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Stories of Ourselves
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It is harrowing but also wearisome stuff, a bit Liza with a zzzzz.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
And all for a couple of ho-hum, wearisome men.
From Salon • Feb. 28, 2026
"Alas, it was also, as this wearisome musical prequel cruelly demonstrates, a mistake."
From BBC • Dec. 5, 2023
This year’s team will be anything but wearisome, and watching them will be anything but drudgery, and doesn’t that already feel like a cool October breeze cutting through stale summer air?
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2023
They crept forward, testing each spot before they put any weight on it, a process so slow and wearisome that they thought they might die of fatigue; but they couldn’t rest, they couldn’t stop.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
