Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Backbreaking |
BackbreakingAdjective1. Characterized by toilsome effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "backbreaking" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1902. (references) |
Synonyms: BackbreakingSynonyms: arduous (adj), grueling (adj), gruelling (adj), hard (adj), heavy (adj), laborious (adj), labourious (adj), punishing (adj), toilsome (adj). (additional references) |
| "Backbreaking" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 66.67% of the time. "Backbreaking" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 66.67% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 33.33% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 3 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "backbreaking": backbreaking task. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| Language | Translations for "backbreaking"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Czech | vyèerpávající (enervating, exhaustible, exhausting, exhaustive, grueling, gruelling, killing, nerve racking). (various references) | |
German | erschöpfend (back breaking, depletive, exhausting, exhaustive, exhaustively). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 骨仕事 (backbreaking work), 煩労 (backbreaking exertions, pains, trouble). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ほねし"と (backbreaking work), は"ろう (backbreaking exertions, pains, trouble). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ackbreakingbay.(various references) | |
Romanian | obositor (hard, irksome, lingering, operose, painful, restless, strenuous, sweaty, tedious, tiresome, tiring, toilful, toilsome, troublesome, trying, uphill, wearing, wearisome, weary), istovitor (consumptive, exhausting, exhaustive, fagging, gruelling, killing, tiresome). (various references) | |
Russian | непосильный (beyond one's strength). (various references) | |
Spanish | matador (assassin, killer, matador, mop, murderer, slayer). (various references) | |
Swedish | mycket slitsam. (various references) | |
Ukranian | каторжний. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Backbreaking" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: backbreakingly. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-b-b-c-e-g-i-k-k-n-r" | |
-4 letters: barbican, bareback, beraking, breaking, carabine, crabbing, creaking, cribbage. | |
-5 letters: acarine, anergia, anergic, arcking, backing, barbing, bargain, barking, beanbag, bearing, becking, bracing, bracken, braking, cabbage, cabbing, carabin, carbine, carinae, carking, carnage, gabbier, ikebana, kecking, kerbing, knacker, racking, recking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 61 63 6B 62 72 65 61 6B 69 6E 67 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-... .- -.-. -.- -... .-. . .- -.- .. -. --. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01100001 01100011 01101011 01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B a c k b r e a k i n g |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 0061 0063 006B 0062 0072 0065 0061 006B 0069 006E 0067 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)366769776884716777758073 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage Frequency 4. Expressions | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Derivations 7. Anagrams 8. Orthography | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
