Word.ws English Dictionary

at pains

at pains prepositional phrase: making careful effort (to).

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic, with infinitive) Making careful effort (to).
    • The agency has been at pains to stress that its decisions are still based on sound science.
    • He was at great pains to distance himself from the rumours.

Questions about at pains

What does at pains mean?
At pains means making careful effort (to).
What part of speech is at pains?
At pains is a prepositional phrase.

Words near at pains in the dictionary

  1. at one's own risk
  2. at one's peril
  3. at one's risk
  4. at outs
  5. at pace
  6. at pains
  7. at peace
  8. at peace with
  9. at places
  10. at play
  11. at pleasure

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: at pains (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-at pains.ogg.

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