high-maintenance
13
6.7
- adjective
- /haɪ ˈmeɪntənəns/
- Informal
:
exigente
- Taking care of a high-maintenance pet requires a lot of time and effort.
- pretty high-maintenance
- very high-maintenance
- too high-maintenance
He is very high maintenance and sassy.
- He is very high maintenance and sassy.
- Who do you think is the most high maintenance?
- And one thing you've spoken about, which I absolutely love is the idea that we should all be high maintenance.
- She's, you know, just high maintenance and blah, blah, blah.
- Do you come across as very bougie, stuck up, you know, high maintenance things of that nature?
Examples
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Now White's just coming across as entitled and high maintenance.
Blog text (2) -
He is very high maintenance and sassy.
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Some would even call her high maintenance.
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I forgot how high maintenance you are.
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Jesus, how high maintenance are you?
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I hate to be the one to break this to you, but you are high maintenance.
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Red flags all over the place with that; the person is either high maintenance or too lazy.
Blog text (10) -
You were being kind of high-maintenance.
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Oddly, I really, truly do not think I am that high maintenance.
Blog text (5) -
She sounds pretty high-maintenance.
Synonyms
106
4.4
Careful about small details and hard to please
67
4.7
Being hard to please about food or small details
24
3.9
Easily annoyed and hard to please about small things
13
7.9
Too fussy about being neat and proper
12
7.1
Hard to please and careful about small details
8
8.0
Very careful about small details and being clean, often hard to please
5
6.1
A person who is not easily satisfied and often complains
4
9.8
Being very picky about small details
Too worried about small details and hard to please
Giving too much attention to small, unimportant details
Antonyms
How Demanding
Surface Forms
Morphology
high-maintenance = high + maintenance (transparent) = high + maintenance
Meaning is directly compositional: 'high' (to a great degree) + 'maintenance' (requiring upkeep) yields 'requiring a lot of care'.
Etymology
The word high-maintenance comes from the parts high ('a lot') and maintenance ('care' or 'keeping something in good condition'), so it pictures something that needs a lot of care. That's why we call a person, pet, or object high-maintenance when they need constant attention and effort.