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