Meanings
comparative more nerve-racking · superlative most nerve-racking · alternative nerve-wracking
- Intensely irritating or distressing to the nerves.
His own greeting was equally cordial. "Still exploring!" he cried, as he shook them by the hand. "We will hope your new experiences will not be so nerve-racking as our last."
1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019Synonyms: gut-wrenching
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveIntensely irritating or distressing to the nerves.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectiveextremely irritating to the nerves
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Chinese Cantonese 令人緊張嘅 /令人紧张嘅
- 令人緊張嘅 /令人紧张嘅 (ling⁶ jan⁴ gan² zoeng¹ ge³)intensely irritating or distressing
Danish nervepirrende
- nervepirrendeintensely irritating or distressing
Dutch zenuwslopend
- zenuwslopendintensely irritating or distressing
Finnish hermoja raastava
- hermoja raastavaintensely irritating or distressing
German nervenzerfetzend, nervenaufreibend
- nervenzerfetzendintensely irritating or distressing
- nervenaufreibendintensely irritating or distressing
- nervenzermürbendintensely irritating or distressing
Irish coscrach
- coscrachintensely irritating or distressing
Norwegian Bokmål nervepirrende
- nervepirrendeintensely irritating or distressing
Polish stresujący
- stresującyintensely irritating or distressing
Cite this entry
nerve-racking. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nerve-racking
“nerve-racking.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nerve-racking. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nerve-racking,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nerve-racking.
Source: nerve-racking on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.