painful

Alternative forms

• painfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English paynful, peinful, peynful, paynefull, peynefull, equivalent to pain +‎ -ful. Compare Danish pinefuld (“painful”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪn.fəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪnfəl

Adjective

painful (comparative painfuller or more painful, superlative painfullest or most painful)

1. Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. [from 14th c.]

   Synonyms: excruciating, torturous; see also Thesaurus:agonizing

   Antonyms: painless, painfree

   • 2009 September 1, Elizabeth Svoboda, “In Tonsils, a Problem the Size of a Pea”, in The New York Times‎:

     In a 2008 case report from India, doctors described removing a giant tonsillolith that was making it painful for a young patient to swallow.

   • 2014, Charles L. Mee, Jr, Lorenzo de Medici:

     A rackingly painful disease that affects the joints and finally cripples, it is caused by an imbalance of uric acid in the system.

2. Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person). [from 15th c.]

   Synonyms: doleful, sorrowful, smartful, irksome, annoying; see also Thesaurus:painful

   Antonyms: painless, painfree

3. Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious. [from 15th c.]

   Synonyms: laborious, exerting

4. (archaic) Painstaking; careful; industrious. [from 16th c.]
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 142:

     The men bestow their times in fishing, hunting, warres, and such manlike exercises, scorning to be seene in any woman-like exercise, which is the cause that the women be very painefull, and the men often idle.

   • 1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson:

     To all these painful labourers Johnson shewed a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood in need of it.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 2, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

     For twenty generations, here was the earthly arena where painful living men worked out their life-wrestle

5. (informal) Very bad, poor.

   His violin playing is painful.