soul-crushing

comparative more soul-crushing · superlative most soul-crushing

1. Extremely disheartening: that causes erosion of moral fortitude or that eliminates hope or motivation.

   This litany of travails is soul-crushing.

   3 more examples

   Near-synonyms: see Thesaurus:disheartening

   Some came to get rich on their wits and intellect, others on their strength and brawn, toiling from dawn to dusk in soul-crushing labors.

   2010, Gayle Soucek, Marshall Field's: The Store That Helped Build Chicago, The History Press, →ISBN, page 17

   Oh, it was nothing compared to the immediate, soul-crushing loneliness I'd experienced when Baxter and I had split.

   2013, Kristina Lloyd, Thrill Seeker, Black Lace, →ISBN

   Synonyms: soul-destroying, demotivating, demoralizing, despiriting, disappointing, discouraging, disheartening, dispiriting

2. Extremely boring.

   soul-crushing boredom

   2 more examples

   I can't sit through another lecture from this professor — his delivery is soul-crushing.

   And for an introduction to politics course, zombies represent the threat posed by a textbook that is so chock full of soul-crushing boredom that it will smother the mind and rot the flesh right off of students' faces.

   2012, Douglas A. Van Belle, A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political Science through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture, SAGE, →ISBN