Dictionary entry

Painful

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Pain″ful (?), a. 1. Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing. Addison.

2. Requiring labor or toil; difficult; executed with laborious effort; as a painful service; a painful march.

3. Painstaking; careful; industrious. Fuller.

A very painful person, and a great clerk. Jer. Taylor.

Nor must the painful husbandman be tired. Dryden.

Syn. — Disquieting; troublesome; afflictive; distressing; grievous; laborious; toilsome; difficult; arduous.

— Pain″ful‐ly, adv. — Pain″ful‐ness, n.