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painful Definition

pain·ful (pān′fəl)

adjective

  1. causing pain; hurting; distressing
  2. full of or suffering with pain; aching a painful finger
  3. requiring trouble and care; exacting and difficult
  4. annoying or tedious a long, painful lecture
  5. Archaic painstaking

painful Related Forms

pain′·fully adverb pain′·ful·ness noun

painful Synonyms

painful

modif.

  1. Referring to physical anguish

    sore, raw, aching, throbbing, burning, torturing, hurtful, biting, piercing, sharp, severe, caustic, tormenting, smarting, extreme, grievous, griping, stinging, lacerating, bruised, sensitive, tender, irritated, irritable, vexatious, distressing, agonizing, excruciating, torturous, grievous, inflamed, burned, unpleasant, ulcerated, abscessed, uncomfortable; see also sore.

    Antonyms healthy*, comfortable*, well. *

  2. Referring to mental anguish

    unpleasant, distasteful, grievous, worrying, depressing, saddening; see also disturbing.

painful Usage Examples

Infinitive complement

  • contemplate: THE STORY OF THE CRIME The story of the crime is one that is most painful to contemplate and to record.
  • watch: It's been quite painful to watch the process ( !
  • listen: The dubbing is technically accurate - it matches the lip movements - which means that it is painful to listen to.
  • touch: This is a corn beneath the surface of the nail plate which may be very painful to touch.

Modifies a noun

  • spasm: This can make normal mobility impossible and can also cause painful muscular spasms.
  • stimulus: Responding to painful stimuli, left pupil reactive to light, right not visible due to local trauma.
  • urination: They include: fatigue, frequent and painful urination, diarrhea and rectal irritation or bleeding.
  • cramp: Some common symptoms of cp include muscles going floppy or tense, difficulty in grasping things, painful cramps in the arms or legs.
  • neuropathy: Painful diabetic neuropathy Average dosage: 200 mg 2-4 times daily.
  • contraction: If she has a constant painful contraction or soreness in her womb.

Modifying Another Word

  • excruciatingly: The first session saw the squad pound out the miles and burn their thigh muscles on the excruciatingly painful sand dunes.
  • intensely: The symptoms result from an accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints, causing an intensely painful inflammatory reaction.
  • acutely: It was acutely painful to Leslie to be photographed in a major Gwent newspaper wearing a traditionally ludicrous hat.
  • agonizingly: Running was fine but anything which required me to bend my legs into any sort of position suddenly became agonizingly painful.
  • extremely: For their size, they can be extremely painful.
  • unbearably: I found it unbearably painful to look at them.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: As time went by the knee became quite painful on exercise and started to swell a little.
  • prove: This will prove painful to your privates in the hungover morning.
  • seem: At the time, these things may seem too painful to go through and so are not done.
  • sound: The Stylish option also brings an expandable divided gusset, which sounds particularly painful.