Adjective

(en adjective)

That overpowers; so strong as to be overwhelming.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}

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.