Pain
WordNet
noun
(1) A somatic sensation of acute discomfort
"As the intensity increased the sensation changed from tickle to pain"
(2) Something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness
"Washing dishes was a nuisance before we got a dish washer"
"A bit of a bother"
"He's not a friend, he's an infliction"
(3) Emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid
"The pain of loneliness"
(4) A bothersome annoying person
"That kid is a terrible pain"
(5) A symptom of some physical hurt or disorder
"The patient developed severe pain and distension"
verb
(6) Cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed
(7) Cause emotional anguish or make miserable
"It pains me to see my children not being taught well in school"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From < <
. Compare; German , Dutch pijn, Afrikaans pyn.
Noun
- An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.
- The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain.
- I had to stop running when I started getting pains in my feet.
- The condition or fact of suffering or anguish especially mental, as opposed to pleasure; torment; distress; sadness; grief; solicitude; disquietude.
- In the final analysis, pain is a fact of life.
- The pain of departure was difficult to bear.
- An annoying person or thing.
- Your mother is a right pain.
- Suffering seen as a punishment or penalty.
- You may not leave this room on pain of death.
- Interpose, on pain of my displeasure. — Dryden
- We will, by way of mulct or pain, lay it upon him. — Bacon
Usage notes
- Adjectives often used with "pain": mild, excruciating, acute, chronic, sharp, dull, burning, stabbing, etc.
Hyponyms
- agony
- anguish
- pang
- neuropathic pain
- nociceptive pain
- phantom pain
- psychogenic pain
Related terms
- pained
- painful
- painfully
- painless
- painlessly
- painlessness
Verb
- To 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.
- To render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve.
- It pains me to say that I must let you go.
- To inflict suffering upon as a penalty; to punish.