Painful

Definition: Painful

Painful

Adjective

1. Causing physical or psychological pain; "worked with painful slowness".

2. Causing misery or pain or distress; "it was a sore trial to him"; "the painful process of growing up".

3. Exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room".

4. Causing physical discomfort; "bites of black flies are more than irritating; they can be very painful".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "painful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Synonyms: Painful

Inexpedience

Vile, base, villainous; mean; (paltry); injured; deteriorated; unsatisfactory, exceptionable indifferent; below par; (imperfect); illcontrived, ill-conditioned; wretched, sad, grievous, deplorable, lamentable; pitiful, pitiable, woeful; (painful).

Pain

Adjective: causing pain, hurting; Verb: hurtful; (bad); painful; dolorific, dolorous; unpleasant; unpleasing, displeasing; disagreeable, unpalatable, bitter, distasteful; uninviting; unwelcome; undesirable, undesired; obnoxious; unacceptable, unpopular, thankless.

Physical Pain

Painful; aching. Verb: sore, raw.

Vulgarity

Particular; affected; meretricious; extravagant, monstrous, horrid; shocking; (painful).

Crosswords: Painful

I think you need a reminder of how painful reality can be. (End of Days; writing credit: Andrew W. Marlowe)

Painful to live in fear, isn't it (Blade Runner; writing credit: Philip K. Dick; Hampton Fancher)

And it's taken two rather painful operations to get me looking like this (Notting Hill; writing credit: Richard Curtis)

Thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject (The Princess Bride; writing credit: William Goldman)

That was painful and dumb (Freakazoid!; writing credit: Alan Burnett; Paul Dini)

When you talk to me it's painful (Sexual (Li Da Di); performing artist: Amber)

What's too painful to remember we simply choose to forget ("The Way We Were"; performing artist: Barbra Streisand)

Unsettled is a painful place (Between You And Me; performing artist: DC Talk)

Painful to me (Enjoy the Silence; performing artist: Depeche Mode)

The unread book and painful look, the TV's on, the sound is down (Hunter; performing artist: Dido)

Painful Employment (1996)

The Painful World of Moose Malloy (1993)

Painful Pleasures (1993)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Breaking Down the Wall of Silence: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth (reference)

• How To Heal A Painful Relationship (reference)

• My Feelings Are Like Wild Animals: How Do I Tame Them?: A Practical Guide to Help Teens (And Former Teens) Feel and Deal With Painful Emotions (reference)

• Painful but Fabulous: The Life and Art of Genesis P-Orridge (reference)

• Smart Love: Changing Painful Patterns, Choosing Healthy Relationships: A Codependence Recovery Program Based on Relationship Addiction Support Group (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• Painful (reference)

• Painful Desire (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Poison hairs covering this caterpillar can inflict a painful sting. Credit: CDC.

H. ducreyi causes Chancroid, a highly contagious sexually transmitted disease that begins with the formation of painful open sores on the genitals. Credit: CDC.

Tetanus is induced by an exotoxin of the tetanus bacillus (Clostridium tetani), which grows anaerobically at site of injury. Tetanus is characterized by painful muscular contractions, primarily of the masseter, and other large muscles. Credit: CDC.

Scott Gudes prepares to bury a dead pelican. Pelicans are one of the bird species that become entangled in discarded monofilament fishing line. The birds are trapped by the line when it wraps around their legs and can not fly to hunt for food or reach water. Death is prolonged and painful. The monofilament clean up removes line from the roosting sites to protect birds from entanglement. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center.

Widely disliked for their venomous, painful stings, fire ants have spread across much of the southern United States. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer..

Your lungs are your lungs weak or painful. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

... the painful disfigurement of a child afflicted by yaws, the sorrow of a helpless mother. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by Eric Schwab..

It would be less painful just to pay all poll taxes!. Credit: Library of Congress.

Painful incident of the cold spell. Moral: be careful about starting a fire with kerosene. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

I did not myself agree with many things that were done, but I have a very strong impression in my mind of that situation, and I find it painful to contrast it with that which prevails now. ("Iron Curtain" Speech)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

That would be so very painful a conclusion of their present acquaintance

It was a little painful for both of them, no doubt

Any observers in the place would have been mean hawklike observers, heavily armed, with painful throbbings in their heads which caused them to do crazy things when they observed things they didn't like

It may be true, that, to a sensitive observer, there was something exquisitely painful in it.

These words relieved the minds of all from the painful cloud of personal anxieties

God, remember, is a being infinitely good and therefore the loss of such a being must be a loss infinitely painful.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Health

The infections are usually painful. (references)

A bite by the tsetse fly is often painful. (references)

IC is also known as painful bladder syndrome. (references)

Business

Privatization has been a slow and painful process. (references)

During the transition period from planned to market economy, the Russian forestry sector went through major and painful restructuring. (references)

Being aware of all the “ins and outs”, Russian partners can be especially valuable when it comes to complicated and intricate issues of getting equipment certification and permissions, as well as customs clearance (all these procedures are usually very painful in a bureaucratic and corrupted Russia, especially for foreigners). (references)

Civil Liberties

Cuba

The president of FCDH, Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva, said that he was hit in the face, that he lost his glasses (Gonzalez Leyva is blind), and was held in a painful grip. (references)

Economic History

Hungary

Despite its neocommunist pedigree, the MSZP continued economic reforms and privatization, adopting a painful but necessary policy of fiscal austerity (the "Bokros plan") in 1995. The government pursued a foreign policy of integration with Euro-Atlantic institutions and reconciliation with neighboring countries. (references)

Hong Kong

After a very painful recession brought about by the financial and economic crisis that affected the entire Asian region, Hong Kong's economy began to recover in the second quarter of 1999, and grew solidly in 2000. Unemployment stood at a historically high 6.2 percent for 1999, but has now fallen to 4.6 percent. (references)

Human Rights

Pakistan

The shackles used are tight, heavy, and painful, and reportedly have led to gangrene and amputation in several cases. (references)

Burma

There continued to be credible reports that prisoners were forced to squat or assume stressful, uncomfortable, or painful positions for lengthy periods. (references)

China

Prison officials in Xinjiang have not allowed family members of businesswoman and prominent Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer to bring her medicine for heart disease since her arrest in August 1999. She is said to be in poor health, suffering from painful feet, blurred vision, and impaired hearing. (references)

Political Economy

INDONESIA

Its efforts to return to the sustained economic growth it enjoyed before 1997 have been made more difficult by the fact that the country is simultaneously undergoing a painful and, so far, incomplete transition to democracy. (references)

Israel and the occupied territories

The Commission's work was expected to continue into 2002. A landmark decision by the High Court of Justice in September 1999 prohibited the use of a variety of other abusive practices, including violent shaking, painful shackling in contorted positions, sleep deprivation for extended periods of time, and prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures; however, during the year, human rights organizations, including B'tselem, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), and the Mandela Institute for Political Prisoners reported that there was an increase in the number of allegations that security forces tortured detainees, including using methods prohibited in the High Court decision. (references)

Trade

China

Nonetheless, these reforms have been difficult and often painful for certain constituencies, particularly in the aging industrial sector and heavily protected agricultural sector. (references)

Worker Rights

China

Authorities use electric shocks, suspension in painful positions, and other forms of torture or abuse. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "painful": a painful sensation of cold ♦ a painful task ♦ it is painful ♦ make painful ♦ painful bladder syndrome ♦ Painful Menstruation ♦ painful performance ♦ painful sensation ♦ painful vs painless. Additional references.

Beginning with "painful": painful-looking, painful-sounding.

Ending with "painful": s-painful.

Afrikaans

seer. (various references)

Albanian

lëndues (harmful), i vështirë (awkward, convoluted, deep, difficult, exacting, formidable, hairy, hard, intractable, Kittle, labored, laborious, laboured, onerous, parlous, recondite, rough, scabrous, stiff, ticklish, toilful, trying), i dhimbshëm (distressful, distressing, dolorous, lamentable, sore, sorrowful), i bezdisshëm (annoying, bothersome, fussy, grating, haunting, intrusive, irksome, pesky, troublous, trying, vexatious). (various references)

Arabic 

‏فاجع (afflictive, agonizing, calamitous, catastrophic, distressing, grievous, tragic), ‏موجع (aching, agonizing, causing pain, distressed, excruciating, grievous, intense pain, sore, tormenting), ‏مؤلم (aching, agonizing, causing pain, distressful, distressing, excruciating, grievous, sad, sore, sorrowful, tormenting, tormentor), ‏جارح (acrid, cutting, injurious, offensive, predatory, wounding), ‏شاق (arduous, hard, laborious, malaise, onerous, robust, stiff, strenuous, terrible, toilsome, troublesome, trying, uphill). (various references)

Bulgarian 

труден (arduous, awkward, complex, difficile, difficult, dodgy, formidable, heavy, knotty, laborious, lively, perplexed, perplexing, pick-and-shovel, rocky, sore, spiny, stroppy, taxing, thorny, ticklish, tight, tough, tricky, troublesome, uphill, warm), тежък (cumbrous, dense, difficult, distressing, faint, grave, grievous, grinding, hammering, hard, heavy, hefty, high, hulking, labored, laborious, laboured, leaden, lumping, lumpish, lumpy, massive, massy, muggy, onerous, plodding, ponderous, robust, rugged, sad, severe, shrewd, sledgehammer, slow, smart, smashing, soggy, solemn, sore, stiff, stodgy, taxing, thorny, tight, tough, traumatic, trying, unwieldy, uphill, weighty), неприятен (annoying, chronic, clammy, disagreeable, displeasing, distasteful, hairy, hideous, hoggish, inconvenient, invidious, irksome, nasty, objectionable, plaguesome, plaguy, repugnant, sour, tiresome, troublesome, ugly, unagreeable, unappetizing, uncongenial, uncool, undesirable, ungracious, ungrateful, unpalatable, unpleasant, untoward, unwelcome, vinegary, wicked), мъчителен (afflictive, agonizing, awkward, cruel, exasperating, excruciating, grievous, grinding, gruelling, harassing, harrowing, heavy, nerve racking, sticky, tantalizing, torturous, traumatic, trying, vexatious), болезнен (afflictive, diseased, morbid, peccant, sick, sore, torturous, unsound, wicked), досаден (aggravating, annoying, boring, bothersome, importunate, intrusive, irksome, irritating, lengthy, long winded, monotonous, mundane, obtrusive, officious, pain in the neck, pesky, pestiferous, pestilent, plaguesome, plaguy, ponderous, prolix, provoking, tedious, tiresome, tiring, vexatious, weariful, wearisome, weary). (various references)

Chinese 

痛苦 (pain, suffering). (various references)

Czech

trpký (bitter, dry, harsh, sour, tart, unpalatable), trapný (awkward, bothersome, embarrassing, gauche, vexatious, wearing), obtížný (difficile, difficult, dodgy, hard, heavy, nagging, onerous, tricky, troublesome), namáhavý (arduous, gruelling, hard, labor intensive, laborious, labour intensive, strenuous, toilsome, troublesome, trying, wearing), mizerný (abysmal, bad, bleeding, bum, cheap, crappy, crummy, dismal, foul, lousy, miserable, paltry, rotten, stingy, tinpot, vile, wretched), bolestný (dolorous, grievous, hurtful, pained, sad), bolestivý (distressing, hurtful, sore). (various references)

Danish

smertelig. (various references)

Dutch

zeer (ache, pain, quite, very, very much). (various references)

Esperanto

dolora. (various references)

Farsi 

محنت زا, ناراحت کننده (Oppressive), رنجور (Ill, Infirm, Wretched), رنج اور (Troublesome), دردناک (Achy, Angry, Grievous, Sore). (various references)

Finnish

piinallinen (awkward, embarrassing), tuskallinen (agonizing). (various references)

French

pénible. (various references)

Frisian

pynlik. (various references)

German

schmerzhaft (aching, achy, dolorous, dolorously, painfully), schmerzlich (aching, dolorous, grievous, painfully, poignant, sad, sorely), peinlich (awkward, careful, disconcerting, distressing, embarrassing, embarrassingly, lurid, meticulous, mortifying, mortifyingly, nasty, painstaking, scrupulous, scrupulously, uncomfortable). (various references)

Greek 

επώδυνοσ (sore), αλγεινός (sore), οδυνηρόσ (aching, afflictive, baleful, baneful), οδυνηρός. (various references)

Hebrew 

מכאיב (dolorous, sore), כואב (aching, sick, sore), כאוב (aching, sore). (various references)

Hungarian

fáradságos (arduous, cumbersome, cumbrous, hard, laborious, stiff, tough, troublesome), fájdalmas (aching, grievous, it costs me to tell you, pained, sore), fájós. (various references)

Indonesian

pegal (annoyed, fed up, stiff, weariness, weary), sakit (ache, ail, ailment, diseased, ill, sick), menyakitkan, lara (ill, sick). (various references)

Italian

doloroso (aching, achy, distressing, dolorous, grievous, sad, sore, woeful, woesome). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

苦しい (difficult). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

なみ� ぐましい (moving, touching), くるしい (difficult), つらい (heart-breaking), せつない (oppressive, suffocating, trying), いたい (clothes and obi, corpse, different body, full court dress, remains), �"�"ろぐるしい (be or feel sorry). (various references)

Korean 

괴로운. (various references)

Manx

piandagh (smart, sore), guinnagh (stinging), gonnagh (aching, peevish, smart, sore), gewagh (aching), dree (boring, drab, dreary, dull, humdrum, tedious), chingyssagh (seedy), ching (disordered, ill, nauseated, sore, ulcer). (various references)

Papiamen

doloroso. (various references)

Pig Latin

ainfulpay.(various references)

Polish

dolegać (ache, be painful, hurt), boleć (ache, be painful, hurt). (various references)

Portuguese

doloroso (agonizing, bitter, distressing, doleful, dolorous, grievous, sad, salt, sore, sorrowful, trying). (various references)

Romanian

penibil (captious, tough, uncomfortable), supãrãtor (annoying, bad, bothersome, disappointing, dreadful, grating, hurtful, importunate, inconvenient, inopportune, intrusively, invidious, irksome, irritating, irritatingly, jumpy, mischief-makering, niggling, obtrusively, provoking, provokingly, tedious, troublesome, unfortunate, unlucky, unwelcome, vexatious, vexing), sensibil (appreciably, considerable, considerably, delicate, feeling, impressible, impressionable, marked, noticeably, palpable, passible, responsive, scrupulous, sensible, sensitive, sentient, susceptible, tangible, tender, thin-skinned, touchy), obositor (backbreaking, hard, irksome, lingering, operose, restless, strenuous, sweaty, tedious, tiresome, tiring, toilful, toilsome, troublesome, trying, uphill, wearing, wearisome, weary), jenant (annoying, awkward, delicate, embarrassing, tedious, troublesome, uncomfortable, uneasy, unpleasant), greu (annoying, arduous, awkward, burden, burdensome, busy, clumsy, dangerously, difficult, difficulty, fatiguing, gravely, grievous, hard, hardly, heavily, heavy, inconvenient, labored, laborious, laboured, leaden, lot, massive, massy, near, onerous, oppressive, parlous, precarious, punitive, reluctantly, scarcely, seriously, severe, solid, stiff, stodgy, stolid, strenuous, stuffy, ticklish, toilful, tough, troublesome, trying, uneasy, uphill, wearisome, weary, weight, weighty), dureros (aching, afflicting, distressing, dolorous, grievous, grievously, heart-breaking, sad, smart, sorrowful), care provoacã durere, care doare, bolnav (afflicted, ailing, bad, below the mark, deranged, diseased, ill, invalid, negativist, off the hinges, patient, shaky, sick, suffering, unwell). (various references)

Russian 

болезненный (achy, afflictive, ailing, cachectic, morbid, peccant, pimping, sickly, squeamish, unhealthy, valetudinarian, valetudinary, weakly). (various references)

Scottish

goirt (salt, sore, sour). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

mučan (heavy, laborious, nauseous, teasing, thorny, troublesome, troublous, uneasy), bolan (aching, ailing, dolorous, excruciating, grievous, pained, sore). (various references)

Spanish

doloroso (afflictive, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorous, grief, grievous, sad), penoso (distressing, embarrassing, grievous, hard, heavy, labored, laborious, laboured, onerous, toilsome, tough). (various references)

Swedish

smärtsam (dolorous, grievous), plågsam (agonizing, racking, torturous, troublesome, worrying), pinsam (awkward, embarrassing). (various references)

Turkish

zahmetli (demanding, drudging, exacting, exhausting, exhaustive, fatiguing, grueling, gruelling, incommodious, inconvenient, labored, laboring, laborious, laboured, labouring, lucubratory, onerous, toilful, toilsome, troublesome, troublous, trying, uphill, with an effort), yorucu (back breaking, drudging, exhausting, exhaustive, fatiguing, grueling, gruelling, irksome, labored, laboring, laborious, laboured, labouring, languorous, strenuous, tiresome, tiring, toilful, toilsome, trying, wearing, wearisome, weary, with an effort), eziyetli (excruciating, grueling, gruelling, tiring, vexatious, vexing), can sıkıcı (aggravating, annoying, boring, bothersome, chippy, disagreeable, displeasing, embarrassing, provoking, soul-destroying, soulless, sullen, tedious, unexeciting, vexatious, worrisome, worrying), acıtan (stinging), acı (ache, acidulous, acrid, affliction, anguish, biting, bitter, brackish, cutting, distress, gnawing, grief, grievous, harsh, heartbreak, hot, hurt, incisive, lamentable, misery, nippy, pain, pang, peppery, poignant, pungent, sad, sardonic, scathing, severe, shrill, sorrow, sorrowful, splitting, sting, suffering, tragic, trenchant, vitriolic, worry), ağrili, ağrıtan, üzücü (afflictive, devouring, distressful, distressing, dolorous, grievous, harrowing, heartbreaking, heavy, regrettable, rueful, sad, sorrowful, trying, vexatious, vexing, woeful, worrisome, worrying). (various references)

Turkmen 

yzaly. (various references)

Ukrainian

нестерпний (chronic, cruel, excruciating, impassive, impossible, insufferable, insupportable, intolerable, obnoxious, pink, racking, repugnant, unbearable), непри�"мний (acerbic, bad, beastly, brackish, disagreeable, displeased, displeasing, distasteful, grisly, hack, importune, nasty, objectionable, obnoxious, offensive, plaguy, poor, provoking, snooty, tedious, ugly, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, ungrateful, unlovable, unloveable, unlovely, unpleasant, unwelcome), болючий (aching, afflictive, hurtful). (various references)

Vietnamese 

mất nhiều công sức, l� m đau khổ vất vả, khó nhọc (onerous, rugged, stiff, toiful, toilsome, troublesome), đau khổ; l� m đau đớn, đau đớn (heavy, pained, suffering). (various references)

Welsh

poenus, an.guriol (cruel, dire, fearful, terrible). (various references)

Zulu

-buhlungu (ache, be painful, hurt). (various references)

aegros, grave, gravem, graves, gravi, gravia, gravior, graviora, graviores, gravis, gravissima, gravissimis, gravissimo, gravissimus, gravius. (various references)

sar, sarlic, teart. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "painful": painfuller, painfullest, painfully, painfulness, painfulnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Painful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ainful, paiful, paifull, pailful, painfull, Panafu, panful, panfuls, Panicum, Pantulf, Paxinou, Pinguli. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: panful, paulin.

-2 letters: final, lapin, lupin, pilaf, pilau, plain, ulpan.

-3 letters: alif, anil, fail, fain, faun, fila, flan, flap, flip, lain, lipa, luna, naif, nail, nipa, pail, pain, pfui, pial, pian, pina, plan, pula, puli, puna, ulan, ulna, unai.

-4 letters: ail, ain, alp, ani, fan, fil, fin, flu, fun, lap, lin, lip, nap, nil.

+2 letters: epifaunal, painfully, plaintful.

+3 letters: painfuller.

+4 letters: painfullest, painfulness, unamplified.

+5 letters: fluphenazine, slumpflation, unprofitable, unprofitably.