Hypertext Webster Gateway: "painful"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Painful \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. [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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
painful
adj 1: causing physical or psychological pain; "worked with painful
slowness" [ant: {painless}]
2: causing misery or pain or distress; "it was a sore trial to
him"; "the painful process of growing up" [syn: {afflictive},
{sore}]
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" [syn: {atrocious},
{abominable}, {awful}, {dreadful}, {terrible}, {unspeakable}]
4: causing physical discomfort; "bites of black flies are more
than irritating; they can be very painful" [syn: {irritating}]
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