exacting

1. 1
   adjective

   Requiring precise accuracy, great care, effort, or attention to be done properly.

   Like tuning a piano, where being even slightly off is immediately obvious.

   The exacting process of calibrating the instruments left no room for error.

   Surgeons train for years to handle such exacting procedures.

   Similardemanding, rigorous, painstaking, meticulous, arduous

   Oppositeeasy, simple, undemanding

   Note

   Here the pressure comes from the job itself, so the word attaches to work, demands and caution rather than to people. It takes degree words easily. Bram Stoker's The Man (1897) has work "not very exacting", and H. C. Casserley in Railway Magazine (1952) writes of "the somewhat exacting demands" of railway photography. Exacting caution is a telling pairing, because the care a task calls for becomes a quality of how it is done.

2. 2
   adjective

   Making great demands on those involved; difficult to please or satisfy.

   Like a judge who keeps raising the bar no matter how well you perform.

   The director was exacting, insisting on dozens of retakes for a single scene.

   An exacting client rejected three proposals before approving one.

   Similardemanding, strict, particular, fastidious, tough

   Oppositeundemanding, easygoing, lenient

   Note

   A participle that settled into an adjective: exact + -ing, from the verb meaning to demand and enforce. Here the demands come from a person or their standards, as in an exacting taste or an exacting governor. It is fully gradable, as Conan Doyle's "a more exacting man than I am" (1895) shows. In the task-centered meaning, by contrast, the demand sits in the work rather than the person.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of exact.

   The empire grew rich by exacting tribute from conquered territories.

   He was exacting a steep price for his silence.

   Note

   The verb form shares its spelling with the adjective, and an object is the surest way to tell them apart. Exacting tribute or exacting a steep price is the verb at work, demanding and enforcing payment. An exacting teacher takes no object and can be more or most exacting, which the participle cannot. After be, look for that object: he was exacting a price is progressive, while he was exacting is a judgment.

4. 4
   adjective

   Marked by the forcible demanding or levying of payments, taxes, or dues.

   The exacting policies of the regime drained the peasantry of their savings.

   Under such an exacting landlord, tenants surrendered most of their harvest.

   Similarextortionate, oppressive, rapacious, harsh, grasping

   Note

   The sense that keeps the verb's grip on money. To exact is to demand and enforce payment, and an exacting landlord or regime does exactly that. T. S. Arthur's "a hard, exacting, money-loving man" (1850) shows the company it keeps. When the context is rents, dues or taxes, read it this way. When it is standards or taste, read it as the "hard to please" meaning.

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