TEDIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tedious mean? 

• TEDIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective TEDIOUS has 2 senses:

1. so lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness

2. using or containing too many words

  Familiarity information: TEDIOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TEDIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

So lacking in interest as to cause mental weariness

Synonyms:

boring; deadening; dull; ho-hum; irksome; slow; tedious; tiresome; wearisome

Context example:

other people's dreams are dreadfully wearisome

Similar:

uninteresting (arousing no interest or attention or curiosity or excitement)

Derivation:

tediousness; tedium (dullness owing to length or slowness)

tedium (the feeling of being bored by something tedious)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Using or containing too many words

Synonyms:

long-winded; tedious; verbose; windy; wordy

Context example:

proceedings were delayed by wordy disputes

Similar:

prolix (tediously prolonged or tending to speak or write at great length)

Derivation:

tediousness (dullness owing to length or slowness)

 Context examples 

My journey seemed tedious—very tedious: fifty miles one day, a night spent at an inn; fifty miles the next day.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But many were the tedious hours which must yet intervene.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The alteration is not in them, if their parties are grown tedious and dull.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I should like balls infinitely better, she replied, if they were carried on in a different manner; but there is something insufferably tedious in the usual process of such a meeting.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Mine has been a tale of horrors; I have reached their acme, and what I must now relate can but be tedious to you.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My mother lives a little way out of town; and the roads being in a beastly condition, and our house tedious enough, I remained here tonight instead of going on.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"I'm not feeling well," said the Scarecrow, with a smile, "for it is very tedious being perched up here night and day to scare away crows."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

It would be tedious to repeat his arguments, and my contradictions.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I would ask for the pleasure of your company, Mr. Knightley, but I am a very slow walker, and my pace would be tedious to you; and, besides, you have another long walk before you, to Donwell Abbey.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It might seem no hardship to some of us, but to a pretty, blithe young girl, it was not only tedious, but very trying, and the thought of Laurie and his friends made it a real martyrdom.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)