painful

Adjective

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

1. Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
   • In a 2008 case report from India, doctors described removing a giant tonsillolith that was making it painful for a young patient to swallow.2009 September 1, Elizabeth Svoboda, “In Tonsils, a Problem the Size of a Pea”, in The New York Times
   • A rackingly painful disease that affects the joints and finally cripples, it is caused by an imbalance of uric acid in the system.2014, Charles L. Mee, Jr, Lorenzo de Medici

   Synonyms:

   excruciating, torturous, agonizing, ailsome, groanful, hellish, hurtful, bruising, painable, terrible

   Antonyms:

   painless, painfree

2. Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person).

   Synonyms:

   doleful, sorrowful, smartful, irksome, annoying

   Antonyms:

   painless, painfree

3. Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious.

   Synonyms:

   laborious, exerting

4. (archaic) Painstaking; careful; industrious.
   • 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.1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 142
   • To all these painful labourers Johnson shewed a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood in need of it.1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
5. (informal) Very bad, poor.
   • His violin playing is painful.