difficult to accomplish; demanding considerable mental effort and skill; "the arduous work of preparing a dictionary"
characterized by toilsome effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace"
taxing to the utmost; testing powers of endurance; "his final, straining burst of speed"; "a strenuous task"; "your willingness after these six arduous days to remain here"- F.D.Roosevelt
the activity or business of negotiating an agreement; coming to terms
a discussion intended to produce an agreement; "the buyout negotiation lasted several days"; "they disagreed but kept an open dialogue"; "talks between Israelis and Palestinians"
(music) the section of a movement (especially in sonata form) where the major musical themes first occur
an account that sets forth the meaning or intent of a writing or discourse; "we would have understood the play better if there had been some initial exposition of the background"
a systematic interpretation or explanation (usually written) of a specific topic
(broadcasting) a communication system consisting of a group of broadcasting stations that all transmit the same programs; "the networks compete to broadcast important sports events"
(electronics) a system of interconnected electronic components or circuits
a system of intersecting lines or channels; "a railroad network"; "a network of canals"
an interconnected system of things or people; "he owned a network of shops"; "retirement meant dropping out of a whole network of people who had been part of my life"; "tangled in a web of cloth"
communicate with and within a group; "You have to network if you want to get a good job"
developed or executed with care and in minute detail; "a detailed plan"; "the elaborate register of the inhabitants prevented tax evasion"- John Buchan; "the carefully elaborated theme"
a member of the Union Army during the American Civil War
national; especially in reference to the government of the United States as distinct from that of its member units; "the Federal Bureau of Investigation"; "federal courts"; "the federal highway program"; "federal property"
characterized by or constituting a form of government in which power is divided between one central and several regional authorities; "a federal system like that of the United States"; "federal governments often evolved out of confederations"
of or relating to the central government of a federation; "a federal district is one set aside as the seat of the national government"
characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is; "madness, an ironic fate for such a clear thinker"; "it was ironical that the well-planned scheme failed so completely"
a system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws; "common law originated in the unwritten laws of England and was later applied in the United States"
(genetics) a segment of DNA that is involved in producing a polypeptide chain; it can include regions preceding and following the coding DNA as well as introns between the exons; it is considered a unit of heredity; "genes were formerly called factors"