PAINFUL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Painful

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/pˈeɪnfəl/ Listen

adjective

Painful adj.

Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing.

Requiring labor or toil; difficult; executed with laborious effort; as a painful service; a painful march.

Painstaking; careful; industrious. (Obs.) "A very painful person, and a great clerk." "Nor must the painful husbandman be tired."

Synonyms: Disquieting; troublesome; afflictive; distressing; grievous; laborious; toilsome; difficult; arduous.

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Etymology of 'Painful'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Painful" Quotes from Famous Books

... from his imprudent excesses in drinking, and the sort of poisoning with which he had crowned the whole. He lay upon his bed in the same position in which he had first been placed, and was sleeping that heavy, painful sleep which serves as an expiation for bacchic excesses. Gerfaut was seated a few steps from him, at a table, writing; he seemed prepared to sit up all night, and to fulfill, with the devotion of a friend, the ...

— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... escaped from a very disagreeable company I was obliged, so much against my will, to be in. As a very particular relation of this evening's conversation would be painful to me, you must content yourself with what you shall be able to collect from the outlines, as I may call them, of the characters of the persons; assisted by the little histories Mr. Lovelace gave me of ...

— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... my painful duty to let you know that certain rumours have reached my ears very prejudicial to your character as a clergyman, and which I understand to be very generally current in Carlingford. Such a scandal, if not properly dealt with, is certain to have an ...

— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... and, torn by unworthy jealousies and dissensions, were unable to resist the well-trained armies which the wise and mighty Saladin brought forward to crush them. But the news of their fall created a painful sensation among the chivalry of Europe, whose noblest members were linked to the dwellers in Palestine by many ties, both of blood and friendship. The news of the great battle of Tiberias, in which Saladin defeated the Christian host with terrible slaughter, arrived first in Europe, ...

— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay

... course, infinitely worse, and should never be tolerated. The practice carries its own punishment, as it invariably ruins the voice; and tones so produced always betray the effort (frequently in a most painful degree), and ...

— The Mechanism of the Human Voice • Emil Behnke

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