backbreaking
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of backbreaking
Explanation
When something is backbreaking it requires a lot of physically difficult work. You'll be exhausted after a long day of backbreaking work on a farm. Backbreaking work doesn't literally break your back, but it will probably make it ache, which explains the origin of this adjective. Digging ditches, moving furniture, and hours of harvesting vegetables are all examples of backbreaking work. You can also spell backbreaking as a hyphenated word too: back-breaking.
Vocabulary lists containing backbreaking
The Color of a Lie
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Difficult
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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.
In the author’s words, “early childbearing, backbreaking labor, and bad luck were family traditions.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Everyone paid to see a pitcher intentionally put himself behind in the count, let a runner on base who would come around to score, and then give up a backbreaking grand slam.
From Slate ● Nov. 11, 2025
He also cut the hay at the end of summer, initially trying with a scythe - Poldark-style - but ultimately finding a small tractor does the trick in a less backbreaking way.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2025
“Targeting hardworking farmworkers and their families who have been doing the backbreaking work in the fields for decades is unjustified and unconscionable,” Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff said in their statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2025
It looked easy, but I suspected that a day of it could be backbreaking.
From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler
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.
