Adjective

(en adjective)

Arousing or meriting strong dislike, aversion, or intense displeasure.

Scrubbing the toilet is an odious task.

*

* {{quote-book

, year=1818 , author=Mary Shelley , title=Frankenstein , chapter=6 citation , passage=He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.}}

Adjective

(en adjective)

imposing]] or [[constitute, constituting a physical, mental, or figurative load which can be borne only with effort.

* 1820 , , "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow":

That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable.

* 1848 , , Shirley , ch. 13:

Again, and more intensely than ever, she desired a fixed occupation,—no matter how onerous , how irksome.

* 1910 , , "The Golden Poppy" in Revolution and Other Essays :

[I]t has become an onerous duty, a wearisome and distasteful task.