pain

plural pains · alternative obsolete paine

1. countableuncountableAn ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.

   I had to stop running when I started getting pains in my feet.

   1 more example

   The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain.

   Antonyms: pleasure, beatitude, bliss, delectation, delight, ecstasy, euphoria, lust

   1. countableplural normallyuncountableThe pangs or sufferings of childbirth, caused by contractions of the uterus.

      When the pains are every five minutes and quite strong or the cervix is five cm. dilated along with regular and strong pains, the mother is given a block anesthesia of 1 cc. of 1:200 nupercaine, 1 cc. of 10 per cent dextrose with .05 cc. of 1:1000 adrenalin.

      1951 February, Forrest H. Howard, “The Physiologic Position for Delivery”, in Northwest Medicine, volume 50, number 2, Portland, Ore.: Northwest Medical Publishing Association, page 99

      Antonyms: pleasure, beatitude, bliss, delectation, delight, ecstasy, euphoria, lust

2. uncountableThe condition or fact of suffering or anguish especially mental, as opposed to pleasure; torment; distress

   The pain of departure was difficult to bear.

   2 more examples

   In the final analysis, pain is a fact of life.

   And I should tell him all my pain, ⁠And how my life had droop’d of late, ⁠And he should sorrow o’er my state And marvel what possess’d my brain; […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 22

   Synonyms: anguish, anguish, rend, difficulty, distress, grief, hardship, smart

3. countableAn annoying person or thing.

   Your mother is a right pain.

   1 more example

   Today is match day, Grimsby Town are at home, and the ground is walking distance from New Clee station. So, visiting football supporters coming by train have to change at Grimsby Town [station]. That's a real pain.

   2024 April 17, “Rural railways: do they deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1007, page 58

   Synonyms: pest, annoyance, bother, faff, grievance, hassle, inconvenience, irritation

4. dateduncountableSuffering inflicted as punishment or penalty.

   You may not leave this room on pain of death.

   2 more examples

   We will, by way of mulct or pain, lay it upon him.

   1629, Francis Bacon, An Advertisement Touching a Holy War

   Seb[astian]. […] [M]y duty, then, / To interpoſe; on pain of my diſpleasure, / Betwixt your Swords[.] / Dor[ax]. On pain of Infamy / He ſhould have diſobey'd.

   1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 105

5. countablein pluraluncountableLabour; effort; great care or trouble taken in doing something.

   The transition to N.E.P. was due to the catastrophic failure of this policy-a failure predicted by the Mensheviks and S.R.s, who for their pains had been denounced, imprisoned, and murdered as henchmen of the White Guards.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 483

   Synonyms: effort, exertion, pains, wark, work

present singular third person pains · participle present paining · participle past pained · past pained · alternative obsolete paine

1. transitiveTo hurt; to put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to afflict with uneasy sensations of any degree of intensity; to torment; to torture.

   The wound pained him.

   Synonyms: afflict, hurt, ache, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, anguish, dere

2. transitiveTo render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve.

   It pains me to say that I must let you go.

   Synonyms: afflict, torment, afflict, lacerate, aggrieve, plague, atray, cag

3. obsoletetransitiveTo inflict suffering upon as a penalty; to punish.
4. datedintransitiveTo hurt; to feel painful.

   My infernal thumb pains yet like the very devil.

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

5. IndiaintransitiveTo feel pain; to hurt.

   Please help me: I am paining hard.

   2 more examples

   Oh my head is aching, oh Lord Damodara [Visnu], give me "kazhi". The neck is paining, oh Lord Kamadeva give me relief. My chest is paining, oh Lord Madhava, give me relief.

   2001, Sarah Caldwell, quoting C. Choondal, “Waves of Beauty, Rivers of Blood: Constructing the Goddess in Kerala”, in Tracy Pintchman, editor, Seeking Mahādevī: Constructing the Identities of the Hindu Great Goddess, page 104

   A lady visited the doctor, a general physician and complained of a lot of pain. The doctor asked her where she experienced pain. The lady touched her right knee and said, 'It is paining here doctor.' Then she touched her stomach and said, 'It is paining here too doctor.'

   2009, Nithyananda Paramahamsa, Bliss Is the Goal and the Path, page 124

   Synonyms: ache, suffer, ache, agonize, anguish, hurt, passion, suffer

plural pains

1. obsoletecookingAny of various breads stuffed with a filling.

   gammon pain; Spanish pain

plural Pains

1. A surname.

plural PAINs · plural PAINS

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of pan-assay interference compound.