Wiktionary

painful

English

edit
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain +‎ -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).

Pronunciation

edit
  • IPA(key): /ˈpeɪn.fəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪnfəl

Adjective

edit

painful (comparative painfuller or more painful, superlative painfullest or most painful)

  1. Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. [from 14th c.]
    Synonyms: excruciating, torturous; see also Thesaurus:agonizing
    Antonyms: painless, painfree
    • 2009 September 1, Elizabeth Svoboda, “In Tonsils, a Problem the Size of a Pea”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      In a 2008 case report from India, doctors described removing a giant tonsillolith that was making it painful for a young patient to swallow.
    • 2014, Charles L. Mee, Jr, Lorenzo de Medici:
      A rackingly painful disease that affects the joints and finally cripples, it is caused by an imbalance of uric acid in the system.
  2. Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person). [from 15th c.]
    Synonyms: doleful, sorrowful, smartful, irksome, annoying; see also Thesaurus:painful
    Antonyms: painless, painfree
  3. Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious. [from 15th c.]
    Synonyms: laborious, exerting
  4. (archaic) Painstaking; careful; industrious. [from 16th c.]
    • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 142:
      The men bestow their times in fishing, hunting, warres, and such manlike exercises, scorning to be seene in any woman-like exercise, which is the cause that the women be very painefull, and the men often idle.
    • 1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson:
      To all these painful labourers Johnson shewed a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood in need of it.
    • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 2, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
      For twenty generations, here was the earthly arena where painful living men worked out their life-wrestle
  5. (informal) Very bad, poor.
    His violin playing is painful.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=painful&oldid=84650952"