punishingly
- adverb
- /ˈpʌnɪʃɪŋli/
- What this means is that when a story takes hold in the upper echelons of European soccer, it tends to stick around for a punishingly long time.
- punishingly hot
- punishingly loud
- punishingly high
Examples
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The tone is again playful, and the stakes feel serious, if not punishingly so.
Blog text (27) -
Ultimately, the price for ignoring council recommendations was punishingly high.
Academic text (2014) -
I think these events make it punishingly clear what I had already predicted.
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For two weeks, the weather had been punishingly hot and humid; not a whiff of air had stirred.
Fiction book (1997) -
It was just punishingly difficult to learn how cover worked and understand that you would be straight-up killed if you didn't find some right away.
Blog text (29) -
A New York Times review describes Soylent as a punishingly boring, joyless product that causes flatulence as a side effect.
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If it thrills people to cut back, that's fine with me, but it seems self-punishingly puritanical to me.
Blog text (11) -
In The Lusty Men (1952), directed by Nicholas Ray, he played a washed-up rodeo rider who has learned from punishingly hard experience that the cowboy's life is "chicken today, feathers tomorrow."
Academic text (2010) -
The training for the marathon was punishingly difficult, leaving her exhausted every day.
-
During the summer, the sun beat down punishingly on the hikers, making the trek almost unbearable.
Synonyms
In a cruel or very harsh way that causes harm
In a way that causes physical or emotional pain
In a severe or unkind way that feels unpleasant
In a way that shows no pity
In a very painful or strong way
In a way that causes very strong physical pain or deep worry
In a way that is very strong or extreme
In a very intense and unpleasant way
You do something with great effort that makes you very tired
In a way that causes great fear or pain
In a harsh way that gives no second chances
In a way that makes something hard to do or bear
In a way that is very long and tiring
In a way that is too unpleasant or painful to bear
In a way that causes someone a lot of pain or worry
Antonyms
How Difficult
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word punishingly comes from punish, which originally meant to give a 'penalty' and is linked to the English word pain. So something done punishingly causes great difficulty or discomfort.