exhausting
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of exhausting
Explanation
Something that's exhausting tires or fatigues you. An exhausting hike up the side of a mountain leaves you gasping for breath and so tired you need to sit down and rest. Some things, like a rigorous workout or a difficult type of manual labor, are physically exhausting. Others are mentally exhausting, like a long argument with a friend or a tricky calculus exam. The adjective exhausting is rooted in the Latin exhaurire, "draw off, take away, use up, or empty," which perfectly describes how you feel after an exhausting experience.
Vocabulary lists containing exhausting
Spelling Practice 1, Unit 8
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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 will be the beginning of an exhausting day.
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026
Descents can be exhausting but the AI isn’t smart enough to detect them.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026
Being Bob Dylan must be exhausting, and the fanbase kind of deserves what it gets from that standpoint.
From Salon • May 12, 2026
"Many people struggle to stick with hard training because it feels exhausting too quickly," says Danso.
From Science Daily • May 9, 2026
By the time she had finished exhausting her knowledge of poetry, she had been speaking for an hour.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
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.
