painful
- 1Causing pain or distress, whether to the body or to the mind.
The injection was brief but surprisingly painful.
Recalling the accident remained painful for years afterward.
Similaragonizing, excruciating, unpleasant, hurtful, terrible
Oppositepainless
Note
The word was put together in Middle English from pain plus -ful, much as Danish built pinefuld. It often appears in an it-construction: it is painful for someone to swallow, or painful to remember. Comparison usually runs more painful, most painful, though painfuller and painfullest also exist. Its opposites are painless and painfree. Excruciating and torturous mark the far end of the scale.
- 2Affected by or suffering pain; sore: said of a body part or, in older usage, of a person.
The nurse gently examined his painful, swollen ankle.
A painful wrist made typing difficult for weeks.
Similarsorrowful, doleful, annoying, irksome
Oppositepainless
Note
Here the pain sits in the thing described rather than being caused by it. A painful ankle is one that hurts, while the "causing pain" meaning describes whatever hurts you. Today the subject is usually a body part, such as a painful wrist or a painful joint. Calling a person painful in this way is an older use, and synonyms like doleful and sorrowful keep that personal, suffering side in view.
- 3Requiring great effort or labor; difficult and demanding.
The painful task of sorting decades of records took the whole summer.
Rebuilding the village after the flood was a long and painful effort.
Similarlaborious
Oppositeeasy, effortless, painless
- 4
Less common meaning
- 5Painstaking and careful; hardworking and industrious.
A painful craftsman, he measured each joint before cutting.
For twenty generations, here was the earthly arena where painful living men worked out their life-wrestle
1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and PresentNote
This is a word of praise, not complaint: the painful worker takes pains. John Smith in 1624 calls the women "very painefull" while the men stay idle. Boswell's "painful labourers" and Carlyle's "painful living men" carry the same admiration. A modern reader will hear suffering, so use painstaking or industrious unless you are echoing older prose. It is the "laborious" meaning moved from the task to the worker.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English paynful (also spelled peinful, peynful), formed from "pain" plus the suffix "-ful," comparable to Danish pinefuld meaning "painful."