exacting

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Making great demands

   Making great demands; difficult to satisfy.

   • His exacting taste required no small degree of outward perfection.
   • [H]e burst into apologies which would have satisfied a more exacting man than I am.
   • [Canadian Prime Minister] Mr. [Mark] Carney was the exacting governor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008 financial crisis, and the levelheaded governor of the Bank of England during Brexit.
2. 2

   Of an action, task, etc., requiring precise accuracy, great care, effort, or attention.

   • Wolf's work, which, though not very exacting, had to be done single-handed, kept him to his post.
   • Even if a GDF receives its first deposit in the 2040s, the waste has to be delivered and put away with such exacting caution that it can be filled and closed only by the middle of the 22nd century.
3. 3

   Of a person or organization, characterized by exaction.

   • "He is a hard, exacting, money-loving man," was my remark.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      present participle and gerund of exact

The neighborhood