Link Centre Dictionary

painfully

pain·fully

UK/ˈpeɪnfəli/ US/ˈpeɪnfʌli/ uncommon informal

adverb

1.

unpleasantly

  • “his ignorance was painfully obvious”
Synonyms
2.

in or as if in pain

  • “she moved painfully forward”
  • “sorely wounded”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

From Middle English peinfully, paynefully, equivalent to painful + -ly.

Related words

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.