for one's pains

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In return for the trouble one has taken, as in And all he got for his pains was a failing grade. This expression is nearly always used ironically to indicate that the return was not appropriate to the effort made. [First half of 1500s]

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Words nearby for one's pains

fornicatrix, forniciform, fornix, for one, for one's money, for one's pains, for one's part, for one's sake, for one thing, for openers, for Pete's sake

How to use for one's pains in a sentence

Added to drinking water at concentrations of around one part per million, fluoride ions stick to dental plaque.
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In his view, a writer has only one duty: to be present in his books.
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Yet this, in the end, is a book from which one emerges sad, gloomy, disenchanted, at least if we agree to take it seriously.
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The fear of violence should not determine what one does or does not say.
Trolls and Martyrdom: Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie|Arthur Chu|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST

The al Qaeda-linked gunmen shot back, but only managed to injure one officer before they were taken out.
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Practise gliding in the form of inflection, or slide, from one extreme of pitch to another.
Expressive Voice Culture|Jessie Eldridge Southwick
He alludes to it as one of their evil customs and used by them to produce insensibility.
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There was a rumor that Alessandro and his father had both died; but no one knew anything certainly.
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Truth is a torch, but one of enormous size; so that we slink past it in rather a blinking fashion for fear it should burn us.
Pearls of Thought|Maturin M. Ballou
Under the one-sixth they appear as slender, highly refractive fibers with double contour and, often, curled or split ends.
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