painful Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective causing physical or psychological pain
    • worked with painful slowness
  2. adjective satellite causing misery or pain or distress
    sore; afflictive.
    • it was a sore trial to him
    • the painful process of growing up
  3. adjective satellite exceptionally bad or displeasing
    dreadful; atrocious; terrible; unspeakable; awful; abominable.
    • atrocious taste
    • abominable workmanship
    • an awful voice
    • dreadful manners
    • a painful performance
    • terrible handwriting
    • an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room
  4. adjective satellite causing physical discomfort; they can be very painful"
    irritating.
    • bites of black flies are more than irritating

WordNet

Pain"ful adjective
Definitions
  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. Obs. 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.

Webster 1913