punishing

adj 1: resulting in punishment; "the king imposed a punishing tax"

2: 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" [syn: {arduous}, {backbreaking},

{grueling}, {gruelling}, {hard}, {heavy}, {laborious}, {labourious},

{toilsome}]