Search Result for "painful": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (4)

1. causing physical or psychological pain;
- Example: "worked with painful slowness"

2. causing misery or pain or distress;
- Example: "it was a sore trial to him"
- Example: "the painful process of growing up"
[syn: afflictive, painful, sore]

3. exceptionally bad or displeasing;
- Example: "atrocious taste"
- Example: "abominable workmanship"
- Example: "an awful voice"
- Example: "dreadful manners"
- Example: "a painful performance"
- Example: "terrible handwriting"
- Example: "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room"
[syn: atrocious, abominable, awful, dreadful, painful, terrible, unspeakable]

4. causing physical discomfort;
- Example: "bites of black flies are more than irritating they can be very painful";
[syn: irritating, painful]



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Painful \Pain"ful\, a.
   1. Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either
      physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing.
      --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Requiring labor or toil; difficult; executed with
      laborious effort; as a painful service; a painful march.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Painstaking; careful; industrious. [Obs.] --Fuller.
      [1913 Webster]

            A very painful person, and a great clerk. --Jer.
                                                  Taylor.
      [1913 Webster]

            Nor must the painful husbandman be tired. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Disquieting; troublesome; afflictive; distressing;
        grievous; laborious; toilsome; difficult; arduous.
        [1913 Webster] -- Pain"ful*ly, adv. --
        Pain"ful*ness, n.
        [1913 Webster]


WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

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,
       painful, 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, painful,
       terrible, unspeakable]
    4: causing physical discomfort; "bites of black flies are more
       than irritating; they can be very painful" [syn:
       irritating, painful]


Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

140 Moby Thesaurus words for "painful":
   Herculean, aching, achy, acute, affecting, afflictive, aggravating,
   agonizing, algetic, annoying, arduous, assiduous, atrocious,
   backbreaking, besetting, biting, bitter, bleak, bothersome,
   burdensome, burning, careful, cheerless, comfortless,
   conscientious, cramping, cruel, crushing, demanding, deplorable,
   depressing, depressive, detailed, diligent, discomforting, dismal,
   dismaying, disquieting, distasteful, distressful, distressing,
   disturbing, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, earnest,
   effortful, exacting, exasperating, excruciating, forced, galling,
   gnawing, grave, grievous, griping, grueling, harassing, hard,
   hard-earned, hard-fought, harrowing, harsh, heavy, hefty, hurtful,
   hurting, irksome, irritating, joyless, killing, labored, laborious,
   lamentable, meticulous, mournful, moving, onerous, operose,
   oppressive, painstaking, paroxysmal, pathetic, piercing, piteous,
   pitiable, plaguey, poignant, pungent, punishing, racking, raw,
   regrettable, rigorous, rueful, sad, saddening, scrupulous,
   sedulous, sensitive, severe, sharp, shooting, smarting, sore,
   sorrowful, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, stabbing, stinging,
   strained, strenuous, tender, thorough, thoroughgoing, throbbing,
   toilsome, tormenting, torturous, touching, tough, troublesome,
   troubling, trying, unappetizing, uncomfortable, unpalatable,
   unpleasant, unsavory, uphill, vexatious, vexing, wearisome,
   woebegone, woeful, worrisome, worrying, wretched