Painful — Pain ful, a. 1. Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing. Addison. [1913 Webster] 2. Requiring labor or toil; difficult; executed with laborious effort; as a painful service; a… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
painful — [pān′fəl] adj. 1. causing pain; hurting; distressing 2. full of or suffering with pain; aching [a painful finger] 3. requiring trouble and care; exacting and difficult 4. annoying or tedious [a long, painful lecture] 5. Archaic painstaking… … English World dictionary
painful — ► ADJECTIVE 1) affected with or causing pain. 2) informal very bad: their attempts at reggae are painful. DERIVATIVES painfully adverb painfulness noun … English terms dictionary
painful — I adjective aching, afflictive, agonizing, anguishing, arduous, beset with difficulties, difficult, difficult to endure, discomforting, distressful, distressing, disturbing, excruciating, grievous, grueling, hard to endure, harmful, harrowing,… … Law dictionary
painful — (adj.) mid 14c., from PAIN (Cf. pain) (n.) + FUL (Cf. ful). Related: Painfully; painfulness … Etymology dictionary
painful — [adj] physically or mentally agonizing aching, afflictive, agonizing, arduous, awful, biting, burning, caustic, difficult, dire, disagreeable, distasteful, distressing, dreadful, excruciating, extreme, extremely bad, grievous, hard, harrowing,… … New thesaurus
painful — pain|ful [ˈpeınfəl] adj 1.) making you feel very upset, or very difficult and unpleasant for you ≠ ↑painless painful memories/experience etc ▪ He sobbed as he recalled the painful memory. ▪ Venice was a painful reminder of her marriage. ▪ He and… … Dictionary of contemporary English
painful — adjective 1 making you feel very upset, or very difficult and unpleasant for you: be painful for sb (to do sth): It s still painful for her to talk about the divorce. | painful memories/experience: Hearing about the war again brings back painful… … Longman dictionary of contemporary English
painful — pain|ful [ peınfl ] adjective ** 1. ) making you feel upset, ashamed, or unhappy: painful memory/reminder: He sobbed as he relived the painful memory. painful experience: His autobiography recounts the unique and painful experience of… … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
painful */*/ — UK [ˈpeɪnf(ə)l] / US adjective 1) making you feel upset, ashamed, or unhappy painful memory/reminder: He sobbed as he relived the painful memory. painful experience: His autobiography recounts the unique and painful experience of imprisonment.… … English dictionary
