painful — [pān′fəl] adj. 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… … English World dictionary
painful — ► ADJECTIVE 1) affected with or causing pain. 2) informal very bad: their attempts at reggae are painful. DERIVATIVES painfully adverb painfulness noun … English terms dictionary
painful — I adjective aching, afflictive, agonizing, anguishing, arduous, beset with difficulties, difficult, difficult to endure, discomforting, distressful, distressing, disturbing, excruciating, grievous, grueling, hard to endure, harmful, harrowing,… … Law dictionary
painful — (adj.) mid 14c., from PAIN (Cf. pain) (n.) + FUL (Cf. ful). Related: Painfully; painfulness … Etymology dictionary
painful — [adj] physically or mentally agonizing aching, afflictive, agonizing, arduous, awful, biting, burning, caustic, difficult, dire, disagreeable, distasteful, distressing, dreadful, excruciating, extreme, extremely bad, grievous, hard, harrowing,… … New thesaurus
painful — pain|ful [ˈpeınfəl] adj 1.) making you feel very upset, or very difficult and unpleasant for you ≠ ↑painless painful memories/experience etc ▪ He sobbed as he recalled the painful memory. ▪ Venice was a painful reminder of her marriage. ▪ He and… … Dictionary of contemporary English
painful — adjective 1 making you feel very upset, or very difficult and unpleasant for you: be painful for sb (to do sth): It s still painful for her to talk about the divorce. | painful memories/experience: Hearing about the war again brings back painful… … Longman dictionary of contemporary English
painful — pain|ful [ peınfl ] adjective ** 1. ) making you feel upset, ashamed, or unhappy: painful memory/reminder: He sobbed as he relived the painful memory. painful experience: His autobiography recounts the unique and painful experience of… … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
painful — [[t]pe͟ɪnfʊl[/t]] ♦♦♦ 1) ADJ GRADED: oft ADJ to inf If a part of your body is painful, it hurts because it is injured or because there is something wrong with it. Her glands were swollen and painful... Sampras awaits the results of a bone scan on … English dictionary
painful */*/ — UK [ˈpeɪnf(ə)l] / US adjective 1) making you feel upset, ashamed, or unhappy painful memory/reminder: He sobbed as he relived the painful memory. painful experience: His autobiography recounts the unique and painful experience of imprisonment.… … English dictionary
