painful

painful
    adj 1: causing physical or psychological pain; "worked with
           painful slowness" [ant: {painless}]
    2: causing misery or pain or distress; "it was a sore trial to
       him"; "the painful process of growing up" [syn: {afflictive},
       {painful}, {sore}]
    3: exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste";
       "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful
       manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting";
       "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room" [syn:
       {atrocious}, {abominable}, {awful}, {dreadful}, {painful},
       {terrible}, {unspeakable}]
    4: causing physical discomfort; "bites of black flies are more
       than irritating; they can be very painful" [syn:
       {irritating}, {painful}]
    

Painful \Pain"ful\, a.
   1. Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either
      physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing.
      --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Requiring labor or toil; difficult; executed with
      laborious effort; as a painful service; a painful march.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Painstaking; careful; industrious. [Obs.] --Fuller.
      [1913 Webster]

            A very painful person, and a great clerk. --Jer.
                                                  Taylor.
      [1913 Webster]

            Nor must the painful husbandman be tired. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Disquieting; troublesome; afflictive; distressing;
        grievous; laborious; toilsome; difficult; arduous.
        [1913 Webster] -- {Pain"ful*ly}, adv. --
        {Pain"ful*ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]
    

140 Moby Thesaurus words for "painful":
      Herculean, aching, achy, acute, affecting, afflictive, aggravating,
      agonizing, algetic, annoying, arduous, assiduous, atrocious,
      backbreaking, besetting, biting, bitter, bleak, bothersome,
      burdensome, burning, careful, cheerless, comfortless,
      conscientious, cramping, cruel, crushing, demanding, deplorable,
      depressing, depressive, detailed, diligent, discomforting, dismal,
      dismaying, disquieting, distasteful, distressful, distressing,
      disturbing, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, earnest,
      effortful, exacting, exasperating, excruciating, forced, galling,
      gnawing, grave, grievous, griping, grueling, harassing, hard,
      hard-earned, hard-fought, harrowing, harsh, heavy, hefty, hurtful,
      hurting, irksome, irritating, joyless, killing, labored, laborious,
      lamentable, meticulous, mournful, moving, onerous, operose,
      oppressive, painstaking, paroxysmal, pathetic, piercing, piteous,
      pitiable, plaguey, poignant, pungent, punishing, racking, raw,
      regrettable, rigorous, rueful, sad, saddening, scrupulous,
      sedulous, sensitive, severe, sharp, shooting, smarting, sore,
      sorrowful, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, stabbing, stinging,
      strained, strenuous, tender, thorough, thoroughgoing, throbbing,
      toilsome, tormenting, torturous, touching, tough, troublesome,
      troubling, trying, unappetizing, uncomfortable, unpalatable,
      unpleasant, unsavory, uphill, vexatious, vexing, wearisome,
      woebegone, woeful, worrisome, worrying, wretched