painfully
English
Etymology
From Middle English peinfully, paynefully, equivalent to painful + -ly.
Pronunciation
Adverb
painfully (comparative more painfully, superlative most painfully)
- In a painful manner; as if in pain.
- I limped painfully down the stairs.
- 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter IX, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, →OCLC; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, →OCLC, page 193:
- The unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence of the room.
- (informal) Badly; poorly.
- That was the most painfully sung rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” that I’ve ever heard.
Usage notes
Some adjectives commonly collocating with painfully: thin, long, slow, boring, close
Translations
in a painful manner
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -ly
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷey-
- English 3-syllable words
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- en:Pain