painful
Americanadjective
-
affected with, causing, or characterized by pain.
a painful wound; a painful night; a painful memory.
- Synonyms:
- excruciating, agonizing
-
laborious; exacting; difficult.
a painful life.
- Synonyms:
- arduous
- Antonyms:
- easy
-
Archaic. painstaking; careful.
adjective
-
causing pain; distressing
a painful duty
-
affected with pain
a painful leg
-
tedious or difficult
-
informal extremely bad
a painful performance
Other Word Forms
- overpainful adjective
- overpainfully adverb
- overpainfulness noun
- painfully adverb
- painfulness noun
- unpainful adjective
- unpainfully adverb
Etymology
Origin of painful
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Police broke the news to her mum hours later - a moment Danielle said was too painful to relive.
From BBC
Discovery stretches into the stratosphere, a painful truth emerged.
From Los Angeles Times
The 20 years the U.S. spent enmeshed in those countries were painful and expensive, and people are still wondering what they ultimately accomplished.
From Salon
"We recognise that is very painful but we are committed to delivering that change. You didn't ask me to retain the status quo."
From BBC
They point to past experience of pay deals that break through the ceiling imposed by finance secretaries leading to rapid and sometimes painful revised budgets during the financial year.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
