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painful
[ peyn-fuhl ]
adjective
- affected with, causing, or characterized by pain:
a painful wound; a painful night; a painful memory.
Synonyms: excruciating, agonizing
- laborious; exacting; difficult:
a painful life.
Synonyms: arduous
Antonyms: easy
- Archaic. painstaking; careful.
painful
/ ˈpeɪnfʊl /
adjective
- causing pain; distressing
a painful duty
- affected with pain
a painful leg
- tedious or difficult
- informal.extremely bad
a painful performance
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Derived Forms
- ˈpainfully, adverb
- ˈpainfulness, noun
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Other Words From
- painful·ly adverb
- painful·ness noun
- over·painful adjective
- over·painful·ly adverb
- over·painful·ness noun
- un·painful adjective
- un·painful·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins
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Example Sentences
To his critics, he explained—sometimes at painful length—his reasoning against it.
But while his departure was “inexpressibly painful,” he never succumbed to bitterness.
What follows is hysterical, painful, weird, and strangely touching—a true Festivus for the rest of us.
I turned left, and began the long, painful walk to the emergency room at the University of Virginia medical center.
The audience--tout Hollywood--stands to cheer his slow and painful trek from the wings to the table.
The voice of duty called her to the kitchen, where her cook patiently awaited her inevitable, and always painful, audience.
It is painful to add, that the latter years of his life were passed in prison, where he was confined for debt.
In a thousand trials the cruel witness of Moses has sent innocent women to a painful death.
I did not anticipate a tour of pleasure through Ireland, but the reality is more painful than I anticipated.
He sees no longer the brink of the abyss beside which the path of progress picks its painful way.
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