for one's pains

1. 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]

Example Sentences

It is tiresome to sit night after night and get nothing for one's pains.

From Project Gutenberg

Why had he lied, and was a portion his in the lake of fire and brimstone, and what was the good of being repentant and confessing, and being called a fool for one's pains?

From Project Gutenberg

He deserves so infinitely much, that, the truth is, there can be no doating in the matter; but, to love well, I confess, is a work that pays itself: 'Tis telling gold, and, after, taking it for one's pains.

From Project Gutenberg

It was no longer curious that one might watch the door of the house for months at a stretch and go unrewarded for one's pains, as the Tocsin had done, when access to the house by those who frequented it was so easy through the garage on the side street—and from the garage, if their work there was in keeping with their clever contrivances within the house, by an underground connection into, say, the cellar or basement!

From Project Gutenberg