- pain
- [[t]pe͟ɪn[/t]]
♦♦pains, pained1) N-VAR Pain is the feeling of great discomfort you have, for example when you have been hurt or when you are ill.
...back pain.
...a bone disease that caused excruciating pain...
To help ease the pain, heat can be applied to the area with a hot water bottle...
I felt a sharp pain in my lower back...
The illness began with a nagging pain.
...chest pains.
●PHRASE: PHR after v If you are in pain, you feel pain in a part of your body, because you are injured or ill.She was writhing in pain, bathed in perspiration.
2) N-UNCOUNT Pain is the feeling of unhappiness that you have when something unpleasant or upsetting happens....grey eyes that seemed filled with pain.
Syn:3) VERB: no cont If a fact or idea pains you, it makes you feel upset and disappointed.[V n] This public acknowledgment of Ted's disability pained my mother...
[it V n to-inf] It pains me to think of you struggling all alone. [Also it V n that]
4) PHRASE: pain inflects, v-link PHR, PHR to-inf (disapproval) In informal English, if you call someone or something a pain or a pain in the neck, you mean that they are very annoying or irritating. Expressions such as a pain in the arse and a pain in the backside in British English, or a pain in the ass and a pain in the butt in American English, are also used, but most people consider them offensive. [INFORMAL]5) PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR to-inf If someone is at pains to do something, they are very eager and anxious to do it, especially because they want to avoid a difficult situation.Mobil is at pains to point out that the chances of an explosion at the site are remote.
Syn:6) PHRASE: PHR with cl You say that something was all you got for your pains when you are mentioning the disappointing result of situation into which you put a lot of work or effort.All Corfield got for his pains was a bullet in the head...
The Professor lavished his learning on the young visitor but gained little gratitude for his pains.
7) PHR-PREP If someone is ordered not to do something on pain of or under pain of death, imprisonment, or arrest, they will be killed, put in prison, or arrested if they do it.We were forbidden, under pain of imprisonment, to use our native language.
8) PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR to-inf If you take pains to do something or go to great pains to do something, you try hard to do it, because you think it is important to do it.Social workers went to great pains to acknowledge men's domestic rights...
I had taken great pains with my appearance.
Syn:go to great lengths
English dictionary. 2008.
