Adjective

(en adjective)

Twisted; having many turns; convoluted.

* 2007 October 6, “Slogging on the Home Front”, editorial in ,

It still takes almost half a year for the average veteran’s claim for disability benefits to be decided in a tortuous process that can involve four separate hearings.

* Macaulay

The badger made his dark and tortuous hole on the side of every hill where the copsewood grew thick.

(obsolete) injurious; tortious

(astrology) oblique; applied to the six signs of the zodiac (from Capricorn to Gemini) that ascend most rapidly and obliquely

* Skeat

Infortunate ascendent tortuous .

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.