nerve-racking
20
5.0
- adjective
- /ˈnɜrvˌrækɪŋ/
- Informal
:
estresante
- Giving a speech in front of a large audience is often a nerve-racking experience that many people dread.
- very nerve-racking
- really nerve-racking
- nerve-racking moment
Guard duty in those hot zones was usually nerve racking enough without going the extra yard.
- Guard duty in those hot zones was usually nerve racking enough without going the extra yard.
- I know, like I said, I know it's, it's nerve racking sitting in that damn chair.
- A lot of time it was extremely nerve racking.
- The anticipation was a bit nerve racking.
- That is really the most nerve racking part of any PC build at this point.
- And so to have to present herself with poise was really nerve racking and let's be honest, led to a bit of a drinking issue.
- So to come back and do that on my own was both exciting and and and nerve racking until last one, right.
- So yeah, yeah, because that's because a big audience as well and it's it can be nerve racking, but it's still your story.
Examples
-
Do you ever find it nerve-racking to watch your understudies rehearse?
-
The whole affair was more nerve-racking than he'd anticipated.
Fiction book (1999) -
Probably the most nerve-racking couple of minutes of your life.
-
Four years ago today was one of the most nerve-racking days of my life.
Blog text (6) -
When we record, it's really nerve-racking and difficult.
Blog text (30) -
Anyone who has ever put any kind of production together will know just how complicated and nerve-racking it is.
Blog text (24) -
After two such nerve-racking matches, we were rather exhausted.
Blog text (15) -
Sitting with Ruth since dawn waiting for Preston Landers had been a nerve-racking experience.
Fiction book (1993) -
So anytime you do something for the first time, it's scary, it's nerve racking, it's stressful, you're going to freak out.
-
Dangling precious samples over pounding Atlantic waves was nerve-racking at times, but everything made it back safely.
Academic text (2006)
Synonyms
167
2.8
Making you feel very worried or nervous
154
4.0
Causing worry or distress
64
4.2
Making you feel worried or uneasy
18
6.1
Causes a lot of worry and stress
1
5.1
Hard to deal with and making people feel tired or annoyed
Causing very strong physical or mental pain
Antonyms
How Stressful
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Nerve-racking comes from the parts nerve and rack. The rack part once meant 'to cause great pain', as in 'to torture', so nerve-racking describes something that puts your nerves under great pressure and causes a lot of stress.