painful
/ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ adjective B1- Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
- Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person).
- Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious.
- Very bad, poor. · His violin playing is painful.
Comparative painfuller · Superlative painfullest
From the library
He was a big, fat, stolid youth of twenty, with a round, expressionless face, and a painful lack of conversational gifts.
We are not on friendly terms, and it always gives me pain to meet him, but I have no reason for avoiding _him_ but what I might proclaim to all the world--a sense of very great ill-usage, and most painful regrets at his being what he is.
Elizabeth’s eyes were fixed on her, with most painful sensations; and she watched her progress through the several stanzas with an impatience which was very ill rewarded at their close; for Mary, on receiving amongst the thanks of the table the hint of a hope that she might be prevailed on to favour them again, after the pause of half a minute began another.
As for Jane, _her_ anxiety under this suspense was, of course, more painful than Elizabeth’s: but whatever she felt she was desirous of concealing; and between herself and Elizabeth, therefore, the subject was never alluded to.
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