frustrating

1. 1
   adjective

   Discouraging, or causing annoyance or anger, because something is excessively difficult to deal with or accomplish.

   Losing the entire file after hours of work was deeply frustrating.

   She found the slow internet connection increasingly frustrating during the meeting.

   Similarannoying, exasperating, infuriating, maddening, irritating

   Oppositesatisfying, rewarding, gratifying

   Note

   A participial adjective, built from frustrate + -ing, that describes the effect a thing has on whoever faces it. Unlike the verb form it grades, so you can say more frustrating, most frustrating, deeply or increasingly frustrating. It pairs naturally with "all the more", as in Nathan Rabin's 2012 review of The Simpsons episode "New Kid On The Block". Keep the roles straight: the situation is frustrating, and the person is frustrated.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of frustrate.

   Repeated technical glitches were frustrating the developers all week.

   Heavy traffic kept frustrating commuters trying to reach downtown.

   Note

   The verb form proper behaves like a verb and takes an object, the person or plan being thwarted: frustrating the developers, frustrating commuters. That object is the quickest way to tell it from the adjective. A frustrating delay has no object, but delays frustrating the team do. As a gerund it can head a noun phrase. It also keeps frustrate's sense of "thwart", as in frustrating a plan.

   Frustrating his rivals' plans was the whole point of the delay.

   The new rules are frustrating every attempt at reform.

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