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high-maintenance

adj

Etymology

According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, the figurative sense was popularized by the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally....

Definitions

  1. Requiring a high degree of maintenance to ensure proper functioning, and without which it…

    Requiring a high degree of maintenance to ensure proper functioning, and without which it is likely to break down.

  2. Requiring a lot of attention or reassurance

    Requiring a lot of attention or reassurance; emotionally needy

    • He has this incredibly high-maintenance girlfriend; if he doesn't tell her that he loves her every five minutes, she tends to break down into hysterical depressive weepy fits.
    • There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for high-maintenance. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA