painfully

comparative more painfully · superlative most painfully

1. In a painful manner; as if in pain.

   I limped painfully down the stairs.

   1 more example

   The unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence of the room.

   1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter IX, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, page 193

2. informalBadly; poorly.

   That was the most painfully sung rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” that I’ve ever heard.