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
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.
For the historian or biographer, such details are inescapably important; for the lay reader, they can become wearisome.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
“Though the road be long and wearisome that leads to a good neighborhood as wide as the world, we shall travel it together,” Truman told the appreciative audience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2026
"Alas, it was also, as this wearisome musical prequel cruelly demonstrates, a mistake."
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2023
That gift grows more wearisome in the book’s final sections, as Markley balances ever-more-intense portraits of devastation with ever more pages of Ashir’s policy wonkery and scenes of boardroom debates.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 6, 2023
And this anxiety to keep his father from angering her was wearisome to him and it was another thing to make of his love a burden to him.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
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.
