Writers employ “tedious” to evoke feelings of prolonged monotony or weariness, whether describing laborious tasks or languid narrative passages. In many texts, it characterizes drawn-out processes that sap energy from the moment, as in accounts of bureaucratic delays or arduous journeys [1, 2, 3]. The term also critiques conversations and internal soliloquies that overstay their welcome, thereby contrasting livelier segments of the work [4, 5, 6]. Even when used humorously or ironically, “tedious” signals that the subject—be it a lengthy discourse or a stagnating phase of life—has lost its engaging quality [7, 8, 9].