Both Uses of
excruciating
in
Turtles All the Way Down
- He then explained to me in rather excruciating detail that Tua (it had a name) was not a lizard at all, but a genetically distinct creature that dated back to the Mesozoic Era 200 million years ago, and that it was basically a living dinosaur, and that tuatara can live to be at least 150 years old, and that the plural of tuatara is tuatara, and that they are the only extant species from the order Rhynchocephalia, and that they were endangered in their native New Zealand, and that he'd written his PhD thesis on tuatara molecular evolution rates, and on and on until the door opened again, and Lyle said, "Dr Peppers, boss."†
p. 36.1
- What happened was relentlessly and excruciatingly dull: I lay in a hospital bed and hurt.
p. 233.3 *excruciatingly = extremely
Definition:
extreme -- typically extremely painful or unpleasant