Okay, so I was tackling the crossword puzzle this morning, just part of my usual routine with a cup of coffee. Mostly smooth sailing until I hit this one clue: very taxing. Seven letters.
Right, “taxing”. My first thought went straight to ‘difficult’ or ‘hard’. But ‘difficult’ has too many letters. ‘Hardest’? Doesn’t quite feel right for “very taxing”. I stared at the grid. I had a few letters already from other words crossing it. Looked like it might be O as the second letter and S as the last. So, O _ _ _ _ _ S.
I kept thinking about “taxing”. What does it really mean? Like, it takes a lot out of you, drains your energy. Stressful? Maybe. But seven letters, O second, S last? Doesn’t immediately bring ‘stressful’ to mind structure-wise.
Then I thought, maybe it’s a bit more direct? Something literally meaning burdensome, a heavy load. Not like physical weight, but the weight of the task itself. I started cycling through words in my head for things that are a big effort, a real pain to do.
Getting Unstuck
Let’s see… laborious? No, too long. Burdensome? Also too long. This clue was proving, well, taxing!
I took another look at O _ _ _ _ _ S. What fits that pattern and means a heavy burden or very difficult task?
- Requires great effort.
- Is demanding.
- Feels oppressive sometimes.
And then it clicked. ONEROUS. O-N-E-R-O-U-S. Seven letters. Fits the O second, S last pattern. And the meaning? Yeah, onerous fits “very taxing” perfectly. It means exactly that – a task involving a great deal of effort, trouble, or difficulty.
Penciled it in, and it looked right with the other crossing words I already had. Felt pretty good to finally nail that one down. It’s always satisfying when you wrestle with a tricky clue like that and finally see the answer. On to the rest of the puzzle!
