[f. prec. + -ING2.] That exacts, in senses of the vb.
† 1. That collects taxes. Obs.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Prerog. Parl., 9. Hee called all his exacting officers to accompt.
2. That demands excessive payment, extortionate.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. M j b. If he for the execution therof shuld aske me more for the same than we agreed for, were not this man a naughtie, exacting, and fraudulent felowe?
3. Of persons, their feelings, temper, etc.: That requires or is disposed to require too great advantages, exertions or sacrifices.
1634. Habington, Castara (Arb.), 107. Set at liberty by death thou owest no debt T’ exacting Nature.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xl. Mrs. Skewton … was in the irresolute, exacting, jealous temper that had developed itself on her recovery.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, ix. 132. You are naturally jealous and exacting.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, I. i. 4. All the exacting ideas of early youth in relation to love and lovers.
absol. 1847. Bushnell, Chr. Nurt., II. v. (1861), 328. There is a great difference between … the exact and the exacting.
1868. Peard, Water-Farm., xi. 115. The returns shall … satisfy the most exacting.
Hence Exactingly adv., in an exacting manner. Exactingness, the quality of being exacting.
1849. Lit. World (N.Y.), No. 127. 4. It [truth] applies to particulars as exactingly as to generals.
1866. Contemp. Rev., II. 188. A sensitiveness about his own position … which might have turned to jealous exactingness.
1889. Morley, Walpole, 107. The boundless activity and exactingness of a reformed House of Commons.
