Punishingly

adv

adv ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    So as to punish.
  2. 2
    In a way that is tiring or exhausting.

    "punishingly hot weather"

Adverb
  1. 1
    in a punishing manner wordnet

Example

More examples

"Bill Clinton was elected on an untenable premise: that it is the job of the President to manage the economy. Yes, that is what we have come to expect of Presidents; but this expectation, the author argues, is punishingly at variance with anything any President can credibly deliver[.]"

Etymology

From punishing + -ly.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.