causing injury or blight; especially affecting with sudden violence or plague or ruin; "the blasting effects of the intense cold on the budding fruit"; "the blasting force of the wind blowing sharp needles of sleet in our faces"; "a ruinous war"
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
put (something somewhere) firmly; "She posited her hand on his shoulder"; "deposit the suitcase on the bench"; "fix your eyes on this spot"
determine or indicate the place, site, or limits of, as if by an instrument or by a survey; "Our sense of sight enables us to locate objects in space"; "Locate the boundaries of the property"
based on or having the nature of an illusion; "illusive hopes of finding a better job"; "Secret activities offer presidents the alluring but often illusory promise that they can achieve foreign policy goals without the bothersome debate and open decision that are staples of democracy"
discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of; "She detected high levels of lead in her drinking water"; "We found traces of lead in the paint"
marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; "a furtive manner"; "a sneak attack"; "stealthy footsteps"; "a surreptitious glance at his watch"
marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another; "she was a deceitful scheming little thing"- Israel Zangwill; "a double-dealing double agent"; "a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer"- W.M.Thackeray
equally skillful with each hand; "an ambidextrous surgeon"