| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | painful |
| Synonyms: | aching, achy, afflictive, agonizing, arduous, awful, biting, burning, caustic, difficult, dire, disagreeable, distasteful, distressing, dreadful, excruciating, extreme, extremely bad, grievous, hard, harrowing, hurtful, hurting, inflamed, irritated, laborious, piercing, raw, saddening, sensitive, severe, sharp, smarting, sore, stinging, tedious, tender, terrible, throbbing, tormenting, troublesome, trying, uncomfortable, unpleasant, vexatious |
| Main Entry: | captious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | very critical |
| Synonyms: | acrimonious, cantankerous, carping, caviling, cavillous, censorious, contrary, crabby, cross, demanding, deprecating, disparaging, exacting, exceptive, fault-finding, finicky, hypercritical, irritable, nagging, nit-picking, overcritical, peevish, perverse, petulant, sarcastic, severe, testy, touchy |
| Antonyms: | commendatory, complimentary, encouraging, flattering, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | carping |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | complaining |
| Synonyms: | bellyaching, caviling, censorious, critical, criticizing, deprecatory, disparaging, fault-finding, griping, grouchy, grousing, grumbling, hypercritical, kvetching, moaning, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, quibbling, scathing, whining |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, forgiving |
| Main Entry: | critical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fault-finding, detracting |
| Synonyms: | analytical, belittling, biting, calumniatory, captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, censorious, censuring, choleric, condemning, critic, cutting, cynical, demanding, demeaning, derogatory, diagnostic, disapproving, discerning, discriminating, disparaging, exacting, exceptive, finicky, fussy, hairsplitting, humbling, hypercritical, lowering, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, particular, penetrating, reproachful, sarcastic, satirical, scolding, severe, sharp, trenchant, withering |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | demanding |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | challenging, urgent |
| Synonyms: | ambitious, backbreaker, bothersome, clamorous, critical, dictatorial, difficult, exacting, exhausting, exigent, fussy, grievous, hard, imperious, importunate, insistent, nagging, onerous, oppressive, pressing, querulous, strict, stringent, taxing, tough, troublesome, trying, wearing, weighty |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile, trivial, unchallenging, undemanding |
| Main Entry: | fault-finding |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | critical |
| Synonyms: | captious, carping, fussy, hairsplitting, hard to please, hypercritical, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, pettifogging, quibbling |
| Main Entry: | haunting |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unforgettable |
| Synonyms: | eerie, memorable, nagging, nostalgic, obsessive, ongoing, persistent, recurrent, repeated, spooky |
| Main Entry: | nettlesome |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | irritating |
| Synonyms: | aggravating, annoying, bothersome, burdensome, distressing, disturbing, exasperating, irksome, nagging, troublesome, trying, vexatious, vexing |
| Main Entry: | torment |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | severe mental distress |
| Synonyms: | affliction, agony, anguish, annoyance, bane, bother, excruciation, harassment, hell, irritation, misery, nag, nagging, nuisance, pain, pain in the neck, persecution, pest, plague, provocation, rack, scourge, suffering, torture, trouble, vexation, worry |
| Notes: | torment suggests persecution or the repeated inflicting of suffering or annoyance; torture adds the implication of causing unbearable pain or suffering |
| Antonyms: | contentment, glee, happiness, joy |