PAINFUL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Painful

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/pˈeɪnfəl/ Listen

adjective

Painful adj.

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. (Obs.) "A very painful person, and a great clerk." "Nor must the painful husbandman be tired."

Synonyms: Disquieting; troublesome; afflictive; distressing; grievous; laborious; toilsome; difficult; arduous.

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Etymology of 'Painful'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Painful" Quotes from Famous Books

... and his Anointed." (Ps. ii. 2, 8.) When this desirable epoch arrives, for which the persecuted witnesses have long and fervently prayed, (ch. vi. 10,) gospel ministers and Christian magistrates will seek to do the will, and aim at the glory of God.—It is painful and pitiable to hear learned and pious men often pray,—"That the kingdoms of this world may soon become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." This is to "ask amiss,"—to miss the promise; for no such promise is on record. The groundless conception confounds the ...

— Notes On The Apocalypse • David Steele

... added that in his writings it is strictly subservient to solid argument. In a London party he might throw the reins upon the neck of his fancy and go on playing with a ludicrous image till his audience felt the agony of laughter to be really painful. In his writings he aims almost as straight at his mark as Swift, and is never diverted by the spirit of pure fun. The humour always illuminates well-strung logic. But the scandal was not quite groundless. When he directs his powers against sheer obstruction and antiquated ...

— Hours in a Library - New Edition, with Additions. Vol. II (of 3) • Leslie Stephen

... fortunately turned out to be nothing very serious— though painful enough—and after it had been treated with antiseptics from the medicine chest he declared that, aside from the stiffness and soreness, ...

— The Boy Aviators in Africa • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... king, coldly, "the Emperor Alexander laid this ultimatum before me, but it would be very painful to me if I should be obliged to accept it. It would deprive me of the old hereditary provinces which form the largest portion ...

— Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia • L. Muhlbach

... when the day was o'er, Call up the tender past again: Its painful joy, its happy pain, And live it over yet once more, And say, "But few more ...

— Legends and Lyrics: First Series • Adelaide Anne Procter

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