pains
Britishplural noun
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care, trouble, or effort (esp in the phrases take pains, be at pains to )
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painful sensations experienced during contractions in childbirth; labour pains
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.
But the Chinese government is working to ease homecoming pains.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026
Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion took pains to clarify that the court was not reversing Allen v.
From Slate • May 12, 2026
The WHO and the Spanish government have been at pains to play down epidemiological comparisons between the current situation and the Covid pandemic.
From BBC • May 8, 2026
Though Powell took pains to discuss the central bank’s independence and other big-picture topics, the end to his Fed term seemed fairly anticlimactic.
From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026
At this point Joe greatly augmented my curiosity by taking the utmost pains to open his mouth very wide, and to put it into the form of a word that looked to me like “sulks.”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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.
