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painful - Meaning and Examples

Meaning of 'painful' (Webster Dictionary)

1 . Painful [ a.]
- 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.

Meaning of 'painful' (Princeton's WordNet)

1 . painful [ a]
Meaning (1):
- causing physical or psychological pain
Example in sentence:
  • worked with painful slowness
2 . painful [ s]
Meaning (2):
- exceptionally bad or displeasing
Example in sentence:
  • a painful performance;
  • abominable workmanship;
  • an awful voice;
  • an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room;
  • atrocious taste;
  • dreadful manners;
  • terrible handwriting
Meaning (3):
- causing physical discomfort
Example in sentence:
  • bites of black flies are more than irritating; they can be very painful
Meaning (4):
- causing misery or pain or distress
Example in sentence:
  • it was a sore trial to him;
  • the painful process of growing up

Nearby Words:

paid paideutics paien paigle paijama pail pailful pailfuls paillasse pailmall

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