painful
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Alternative forms
- painfull (archaic)
[edit] Etymology
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Adjective
painful (comparative painfuller or more painful, superlative painfullest or most painful)
- Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. [from 14th c.]
- Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person). [from 15th c.]
- Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious. [from 15th c.]
- (now rare) Painstaking; careful; industrious. [from 16th c.]
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 142:
- The men bestow their times in fishing, hunting, warres, and such manlike exercises, scorning to be seene in any woman-like exercise, which is the cause that the women be very painefull, and the men often idle.
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, Book 2, Ch. 2
- For twenty generations, here was the earthly arena where painful living men worked out their life-wrestle
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 142:
[edit] Synonyms
- (full of pain): doleful, sorrowful, irksome, annoying
- (requiring labor or toil): laborious, exerting
[edit] Antonyms
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
suffering with pain
causing pain
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requiring labor or toil
painstaking; careful; industrious
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