| Main Entry: | labor |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | work very hard |
Synonyms: |
bear down, cultivate, drive, drudge, endeavor, exert oneself, grind, plod, plug away, pour it on, slave, strain, strive, struggle, sweat, tend, toil, travail, work oneself to the bone |
Antonyms: |
idle, laze, relax |
| Main Entry: | labored |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult to understand, unclear |
Synonyms: |
affected, arduous, awkward, clumsy, contrived, effortful, forced, hard, heavy, inept, maladroit, operose, overdone, overwrought, ponderous, stiff, strained, strenuous, studied, toilsome, unnatural, uphill, weighty |
Antonyms: |
easy, facile, natural, relaxed |
| Main Entry: | act |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | do something |
Synonyms: |
accomplish, achieve, begin, carry on, carry out, consummate, cook, create, develop, do, do a number, do one's thing, enforce, execute, function, get in there, go about, go for broke, go for it, go in for, go that route, go to town, intrude, knock off, labor, make progress, maneuver, move, officiate, operate, percolate*, perk*, perpetrate, persevere, persist, practice, preside, pursue, respond, serve, take effect, take part, take steps, take up, transort, undertake, work out |
| Notes: | an act is the main dramatic unit and a scene is a division within an act |
Antonyms: |
abstain, cease, discontinue, give up, halt, hesitate, idle, refrain, stop |
| Main Entry: | agonize |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | suffer or cause another to suffer |
Synonyms: |
afflict, bleed, carry on, crucify, distress, disturb, eat heart out, excruciate, harrow, hurt, labor, lament, martyr, pain, rack, sing the blues, squirm, stew over, strain, strive, struggle, take it badly, torment, torture, try, wince, worry, writhe |
Antonyms: |
not worry |
| Main Entry: | arduous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, hard to endure |
Synonyms: |
backbreaking, burdensome, exhausting, fatiguing, formidable, grueling, harsh, heavy, labored, laborious, murder, no picnic, onerous, painful, punishing, rigorous, rough, severe, strenuous, taxing, tiring, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, uphill |
Antonyms: |
easy, facile, motivating |
| Main Entry: | artificial |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | pretended; affected |
Synonyms: |
assumed, contrived, false, feigned, forced, hollow, insincere, labored, mannered, meretricious, phony*, put-on, spurious, theatrical, unnatural |
Antonyms: |
genuine, natural, unaffected, unpretentious |
| Main Entry: | contrived |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | overly planned |
Synonyms: |
affected, artificial, elaborate, fake, false, forced, labored, manipulated, overdone, phony, recherché, strained, unnatural, unspontaneous |
| Main Entry: | cultivate |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | develop land for growing |
Synonyms: |
breed, crop, dress, farm, fertilize, garden, harvest, labor, manage, mature, plant, plow, prepare, propagate, raise, ripen, seed, tend, till, work |
Antonyms: |
destroy, ignore, neglect |
| Main Entry: | difficult |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hard on someone; hard to do |
Synonyms: |
Gargantuan, Herculean, ambitious, arduous, backbreaker, bothersome, burdensome, challenging, crucial, demanding, difficile, easier said than done, effortful, exacting, formidable, galling, hard-won, heavy, immense, intricate, irritating, labored, laborious, no picnic, not easy, onerous, operose, painful, problem, problematic, prohibitive, rigid, severe, stiff, strenuous, titanic, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, unyielding, uphill, upstream, wearisome |
Antonyms: |
calm, easy, free, manageable, plain, simple, uncomplicated |
| Main Entry: | drudge |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | work very hard |
Synonyms: |
back to the salt mines, dig, grind*, hammer*, keep nose to grindstone, labor, muck, perform, plod, plow, plug away, pound*, schlepp, slave, slog, sweat, toil, travail |
Antonyms: |
avoid, be lazy, dodge, hesitate, idle |