painstaking effort; meticulous work
Literary or formal term for extremely careful, labor-intensive effort, often implying carving or detailed craftsmanship. Rare in everyday speech.
This craftsmanship is truly a work of painstaking effort.
painstaking literary polishing; laborious work
Compound of 鏤 (ru, 'to carve, inlay') and 骨 (kotsu, 'bone'), literally 'carving bone', metaphorically extended to mean extremely painstaking effort. The exact historical derivation is uncertain.