ˈpānfəl adjective
( sometimes pain·ful·ler sometimes pain·ful·lest )
Etymology: Middle English painefull, peynefull, from paine, peyne pain + -full, -ful
1.
a. : marked by pain : full of pain : having or giving a sensation of pain : affected with pain
a remedy for painful feet
a painful wound
the painful awareness that they couldn't go home — Polly Adler
b. : annoying , irksome , vexatious
works with painful slowness
is so shy that it's painful
painful righteousness and piety — K.S.Davis
a provinciality which is painful — H.J.Laski
c. : disturbing to one's equilibrium : upsetting
would be a painful anachronism — A.L.Guérard
d. : extremely disagreeable : most unpleasant
the painful necessity of renouncing preconceived opinions — Charles Lyell
received some painful news
2.
a. : marked by or entailing or requiring much effort or toilsome exertion
a long painful trip
wrote the book with painful care
especially : stiff and labored
was uncomfortable in this atmosphere of painful hospitality
b. : beset with difficulties : troublesome
painful problems of rehabilitation — Vera M. Dean
groping one's painful way through an imperfectly mastered idiom — A.L.Guérard
3. archaic
a. : done or accomplished or performed with great diligence and care
their virtuous sermons and painful preaching — Thomas Stapleton
according to my most painful discoveries — Ethan Allen
b. : working with great diligence and care
laws of etymology, which painful students have discovered — John Peile
• pain·ful·ly -fəlē, -li adverb
• pain·ful·ness -lnə̇s noun -es