anguishing, imprisoning, burdening, lambasting, castigating, punishing, afflicting, keelhauling, reprising, persecuting, correcting, executing, disciplining, agonizing, sentencing, torturing, penalizing, chastening, incarcerating, pillorying, confining, judging, fining, chastising, avenging, crucifying, distressing.

laborious, arduous, fussy, rugged, formidable, burdensome, cantankerous, tricky, knotty, demanding, bothersome, complicated, finicky, difficult, wearing, strenuous, wearisome, uphill, grinding, complex, oppressive, hard, thorny, stressful, cumbersome, severe, tough, adverse, harsh, toilsome, onerous, tight, troublesome, contrary, rough, wearying, ticklish.

proving, verifying, probing, researching, experimenting, assaying, checking, investigating, determining, analyzing, benchmarking, testing.

gnawing, torturing, aching, burdensome, agonizing, throbbing, irritating, acute, unpleasant, aggravating, grueling, wrenching, hurtful, oppressive, unbearable, arduous, tormenting, sore, woeful, inflaming, harrowing, stinging, cutting, disagreeable, horrendous, cruel, bothersome, severe, offensive, distressful, troublesome, besetting, cramping, chafing, smarting, odious, miserable, grievous, biting, painful, annoying, piercing, bitter, crushing, uncomfortable, anguishing, stabbing, withering, insufferable, excruciating, irksome.

feeble, blue, weary, weak, flaccid, sleepy, listless, tired, run-down, apathetic, exhausted, frazzled, toilsome, debilitated, droopy, footsore, wasted, drowsy, bored, fatigued, over-weary, limp, faint, uphill, wayworn, cheerless, worn-out, depressed.

effortful, hypnotic, nerve-racking, heavy, difficult, hard, stiff, murderous, nerve-wracking, exigent, taxing, exhausting, rigorous, searing, tiring, inhuman, hardhanded, soporific, exacting, grim, disagreeable, stressful, brutal, weighty, backbreaking.

I have been trying to think." - "Hills of the Shatemuc", Susan Warner.

" I'm trying to," I said. - "Jack of No Trades", Charles Cottrell.

I was trying to remember all night. - "Madge Morton, Captain of the Merry Maid", Amy D. V. Chalmers.

trying on, tryingly.