Adjective

(en adjective)

Diligent in application or pursuit; constant, steady, and persevering in business or in endeavors to effect an object; steadily industrious; assiduous.

* 2001 Pollan, Michael , The Botany of Desire , Random House, New York, page 135:

With the right equipment, an indoor grower could create a utopia for his plants, an artificial habitat more perfect than any in nature, [...]. These sedulous attentions would be wasted on male plants, which are worse than useless in sinsemilla production.

* 2010 Paul Routledge , Daily Mirror , 9 March 2010 [http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/scotland-is-turning-into-another-country-loch-756030]:

The Scots have always been a fiercely independent people, but it surprised me how far this sedulous process of separation has gone already.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Needing or using up much energy; testing powers of endurance.

The movement towards a peaceful settlement has been a long and arduous political struggle.

* {{quote-news, year=2012

, date=May 5 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Chelsea survived and can now turn their attentions to the Champions League final against Bayern Munich in Germany later this month as they face an increasingly arduous task to finish in the Premier League's top four.}}

(obsolete) burning; ardent

Where flames the arduous Spirit of Isidore. — Cary.

(rft-sense) Difficult or exhausting to traverse.

* 1974 , Sue Bowder, The American biking atlas & touring guide , page 77:

Beyond the river, an arduous slope rises 3286 feet in 13 miles.

* 1999 , Scott Ciencin, Mike Fredericks, Dinoverse :

Mike looked up from the arduous mountain trail. They'd been climbing for five hours and he was beginning to feel irritable.

* 2006 , Jack W. Plunkett, Plunkett's Entertainment & Media Industry Almanac 2006 :

Survivor reaches as many as 28 million viewers who watch contestants win a new Pontiac or guzzle Mountain Dew after scaling an arduous cliff.