pain
see also: Pain, PAIN
Etymology 1

From Middle English peyne, payne, from Old French - and Anglo-Norman peine, from Latin poena, from Ancient Greek ποινή.

Pronunciation Noun

pain

  1. (countable and uncountable) 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.
    1. (now, usually, in the plural) The pangs or sufferings of childbirth, caused by contractions of the uterus.
  2. (uncountable) The condition or fact of suffering or anguish especially mental, as opposed to pleasure; torment; distress
    In the final analysis, pain is a fact of life.
    The pain of departure was difficult to bear.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XIV, page 22 ↗:
      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; […]
  3. (countable, from pain in the neck) An annoying person or thing.
    Your mother is a right pain.
  4. (uncountable, dated) Suffering inflicted as punishment or penalty.
    You may not leave this room on pain of death.
    • 1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC ↗, Act IV, page 105 ↗:
      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.
  5. (mostly, in the plural) Labour; effort; great care or trouble taken in doing something.
Synonyms Antonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

pain (pains, present participle paining; simple past and past participle pained)

  1. (transitive) 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.
  2. (transitive) To render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve.
    It pains me to say that I must let you go.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To inflict suffering upon as a penalty; to punish.
  4. (intransitive, India) To feel pain; to hurt.
    Please help me, I am paining hard.
Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English payn, from Old French pain.

Noun

pain (plural pains)

  1. (obsolete, cooking) Any of various breads stuffed with a filling.
    gammon pain; Spanish pain

Pain
Etymology

Various origins:

  • A variant of Paine.
  • Borrowed from Spanish Paín.
Proper noun
  1. Surname.

PAIN
Etymology

Backformation from pain

Noun

pain

  1. Acronym of pan-assay interference compound



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