Adjacent Words

Pain definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PAIN, n. [L. paena; Gr. penalty, and pain, labor.]
1. An uneasy sensation in animal bodies, of any degree from slight uneasiness to extreme distress or torture, proceeding from pressure, tension or spasm, separation of parts by violence, or any derangement of functions. Thus violent pressure or stretching of a limb gives pain; inflammation produces pain; wounds, bruises and incisions give pain.
2. Labor; work; toil; laborious effort. In this sense, the plural only is used; as, to take pains; to be at the pains.
High without taking pains to rise.
The same with pains we gain, but lose with ease.
3. Labor; toilsome effort; task; in the singular. [Not now used.]
4. Uneasiness of mind; disquietude; anxiety; solicitude for the future; grief, sorrow for the past. We suffer pain when we fear or expect evil; we feel pain at the loss of friends or property.
5. The throws or distress of travail or childbirth.
She bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her. 2 Samuel 4.
6. Penalty; punishment suffered or denounced; suffering or evil inflicted as a punishment for a crime, or annexed to the commission of a crime.
None shall presume to fly under pain of death.
Interpose, on pain of my displeasure.
PAIN, v.t.
1. To make uneasy or to disquiet; to cause uneasy sensations in the body, of any degree of intensity; to make simply uneasy, or to distress, to torment. The pressure of fetters may pain a limb; the rack pains the body.
2. To afflict; to render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress. We are pained at the death of a friend; grief pains the heart; we are often pained with fear or solicitude.
I am pained at my very heart. Jeremiah 4.
3. Reciprocally, to pain one's self, to labor; to make toilsome efforts. [Little used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a symptom of some physical hurt or disorder; "the patient developed severe pain and distension" [syn: pain, hurting]
2: emotional distress; a fundamental feeling that people try to avoid; "the pain of loneliness" [syn: pain, painfulness] [ant: pleasance, pleasure]
3: a somatic sensation of acute discomfort; "as the intensity increased the sensation changed from tickle to pain" [syn: pain, pain sensation, painful sensation]
4: a bothersome annoying person; "that kid is a terrible pain" [syn: pain, pain in the neck, nuisance]
5: 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" [syn: annoyance, bother, botheration, pain, infliction, pain in the neck, pain in the ass] v
1: cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed [syn: trouble, ail, pain]
2: cause emotional anguish or make miserable; "It pains me to see my children not being taught well in school" [syn: pain, anguish, hurt]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French peine, from Latin poena, from Greek poin? payment, penalty; akin to Greek tinein to pay, tinesthai to punish, Avestan ka?n? revenge, Sanskrit cayate he revenges Date: 14th century 1. punishment 2. a. usually localized physical suffering associated with bodily disorder (as a disease or an injury); also a basic bodily sensation induced by a noxious stimulus, received by naked nerve endings, characterized by physical discomfort (as pricking, throbbing, or aching), and typically leading to evasive action b. acute mental or emotional distress or suffering ; grief 3. plural the throes of childbirth 4. plural trouble, care, or effort taken to accomplish something <was at pains to reassure us> 5. one that irks or annoys or is otherwise troublesome — often used in such phrases as pain in the neck • painless adjective • painlessly adverb • painlessness noun II. verb Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. to make suffer or cause distress to ; hurt 2. archaic to put (oneself) to trouble or exertion intransitive verb 1. archaic suffer 2. to give or have a sensation of pain

Britannica Concise

Physical suffering associated with a bodily disorder (such as a disease or injury) and accompanied by mental or emotional distress. Pain, in its simplest form, is a warning mechanism that helps protect an organism by influencing it to withdraw from harmful stimuli (such as a pinprick). In its more complex form, such as in the case of a chronic condition accompanied by depression or anxiety, it can be difficult to isolate and treat. Pain receptors, found in the skin and other tissues, are nerve fibers that react to mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli. Pain impulses enter the spinal cord and are transmitted to the brain stem and thalamus. The perception of pain is highly variable among individuals; it is influenced by previous experiences, cultural attitudes (incl. gender stereotypes), and genetic makeup. Medication, rest, and emotional support are the standard treatments. The most potent pain-relieving drugs are opium and morphine, followed by less-addictive substances and non-narcotic analgesics such as aspirin and ibuprofen.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a the range of unpleasant bodily sensations produced by illness or by harmful physical contact etc. b a particular kind or instance of this (often in pl.: suffering from stomach pains). 2 mental suffering or distress. 3 (in pl.) careful effort; trouble taken (take pains; got nothing for my pains). 4 (also pain in the neck) colloq. a troublesome person or thing; a nuisance. --v.tr. 1 cause pain to. 2 (as pained adj.) expressing pain (a pained expression). Phrases and idioms: in pain suffering pain. on (or under) pain of with (death etc.) as the penalty. Etymology: ME f. OF peine f. L poena penalty

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pain Pain, n. [OE. peine, F. peine, fr. L. poena, penalty, punishment, torment, pain; akin to Gr. ? penalty. Cf. Penal, Pine to languish, Punish.] 1. Punishment suffered or denounced; suffering or evil inflicted as a punishment for crime, or connected with the commission of a crime; penalty. --Chaucer. We will, by way of mulct or pain, lay it upon him. --Bacon. Interpose, on pain of my displeasure. --Dryden. None shall presume to fly, under pain of death. --Addison. 2. Any uneasy sensation in animal bodies, from slight uneasiness to extreme distress or torture, proceeding from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; bodily distress; bodily suffering; an ache; a smart. ``The pain of Jesus Christ.'' --Chaucer. Note: Pain may occur in any part of the body where sensory nerves are distributed, and it is always due to some kind of stimulation of them. The sensation is generally referred to the peripheral end of the nerve. 3. pl. Specifically, the throes or travail of childbirth. She bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her. --1 Sam. iv. 19. 4. Uneasiness of mind; mental distress; disquietude; anxiety; grief; solicitude; anguish. --Chaucer. In rapture as in pain. --Keble. 5. See Pains, labor, effort. Bill of pains and penalties. See under Bill. To die in the pain, to be tortured to death. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pain Pain, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pained; p. pr. & vb. n. Paining.] [OE. peinen, OF. pener, F. peiner to fatigue. See Pain, n.] 1. To inflict suffering upon as a penalty; to punish. [Obs.] --Wyclif (Acts xxii. 5). 2. To put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to afflict with uneasy sensations of any degree of intensity; to torment; to torture; as, his dinner or his wound pained him; his stomach pained him. Excess of cold, as well as heat, pains us. --Locke . 3. To render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve; as a child's faults pain his parents. I am pained at my very heart. --Jer. iv. 19. To pain one's self, to exert or trouble one's self; to take pains; to be solicitous. [Obs.] ``She pained her to do all that she might.'' --Chaucer. Syn: To disquiet; trouble; afflict; grieve; aggrieve; distress; agonize; torment; torture.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pains, pained) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Pain is the feeling of great discomfort you have, for example when you have been hurt or when you are ill. ...back pain. ...a bone disease that caused excruciating pain... I felt a sharp pain in my lower back... ...chest pains. N-VAR • If you are in pain, you feel pain in a part of your body, because you are injured or ill. She was writhing in pain, bathed in perspiration. PHRASE: PHR after v 2. Pain is the feeling of unhappiness that you have when something unpleasant or upsetting happens. ...grey eyes that seemed filled with pain. = anguish N-UNCOUNT 3. If a fact or idea pains you, it makes you feel upset and disappointed. This public acknowledgment of Ted's disability pained my mother... It pains me to think of you struggling all alone. VERB: no cont, V n, it V n to-inf, also it V n that 4. In informal English, if you call someone or something a pain or a pain in the neck, you mean that they are very annoying or irritating. Expressions such as a pain in the arse and a pain in the backside in British English, or a pain in the ass and a pain in the butt in American English, are also used, but most people consider them offensive. (INFORMAL) PHRASE: pain inflects, v-link PHR, PHR to-inf [disapproval] 5. If someone is at pains to do something, they are very eager and anxious to do it, especially because they want to avoid a difficult situation. Mobil is at pains to point out that the chances of an explosion at the site are remote. = anxious PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR to-inf 6. If someone is ordered not to do something on pain of or under pain of death, imprisonment, or arrest, they will be killed, put in prison, or arrested if they do it. We were forbidden, under pain of imprisonment, to use our native language. PREP-PHRASE 7. If you take pains to do something or go to great pains to do something, you try hard to do it, because you think it is important to do it. Social workers went to great pains to acknowledge men's domestic rights... I had taken great pains with my appearance. PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR to-inf

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pan (chul, chil, chebhel, chalah, chalchalah, ka'-ebh, ke'ebh, metsar, makh'obh, `amal, tsir; basanizo, ponos, odin): These words signifying various forms of bodily or mental suffering are generally translated "pain"; 28 out of the 34 passages in which the word is used are in the poetical or prophetical books and refer to conditions of mental disquiet or dismay due to the punishment of personal or national sin. There is only one instance where the word is used as a historic record of personal physical pain: the case of the wife of Phinehas (1Sa 4:19), but the same word tsir is used figuratively in Isa 13:8; 21:3; Da 10:16, and translated "pangs" or "sorrows." In other passages where we have the same comparison of consternation in the presence of God's judgments to the pangs of childbirth, the word used is chebhel, as in Isa 66:7; Jer 13:21; 22:23; 49:24. In some of these and similar passages several synonyms are used in the one verse to intensify the impression, and are translated "pain," "pangs," and "sorrows," as in Isa 13:8.

The word most commonly used by the prophets is some form of chul or chil, sometimes with the addition "as of a woman in travail," as in Ps 48:6; Isa 26:18; Jer 6:24; 22:23; Mic 4:10. This pain is referred to the heart (Ps 55:4) or to the head (Jer 30:23; compare Jer 30:5,6). In Eze 30:4, it is the penal affliction of Ethiopia, and in 30:16, the King James Version "Sin (Tanis) shall have great pain" (the Revised Version (British and American) "anguish"); in Isa 23:5 Egypt is sorely pained at the news of the fall of Tyre. Before the invading host of locusts the people are much pained (Joe 2:6 the King James Version). Pain in the sense of toil and trouble in Jer 12:13 is the translation of chalah a word more frequently rendered grieving or sickness, as in 1Ki 14:1; Pr 23:35; So 2:5; Jer 5:3. The reduplicated form chalchalah is especially used of a twisting pain usually referred to the loins (Isa 21:3; Eze 30:4,9; Na 2:10).

Pain in the original meaning of the word (as it has come down to us through the Old French from the Latin poena) as a penalty inflicted for personal sin is expressed by the words ka'ebh or ke'abh in Job 14:22; 15:20, and in the questioning complaint of the prophet (Jer 15:18). As a judgment on personal sin pain is also expressed by makh'obh in Job 33:19; Jer 51:8, but this word is used in the sense of afflictions in Isa 53:3 in the expression "man of sorrows." The Psalmist (Ps 25:18) praying for deliverance from the afflictions which weighed heavily on him in turn uses the word `amal, and this word which primarily means "toil" or "labor," as in Ec 1:3, or "travail" as in Isa 53:11, is translated "painful" in Ps 73:16, as expressing Asaph's disquiet due to his misunderstanding of the ways of Providence. The "pains of hell" (Ps 116:3 the King James Version), which got hold of the Psalmist in his sickness, is the rendering of the word metsar; the same word is translated "distress" in Ps 118:5. Most of these words have a primary physical meaning of twisting, rubbing or constricting.

In the New Testament, odin is translated "pain" (of death, the Revised Version (British and American) "pang") in Ac 2:24. This word is used to express any severe pain, such as that of travail, or (as in Aeschylus, Choephori, 211) the pain of intense apprehension. The verb from this, odunomai, is used by the Rich Man in the parable to describe his torment (the Revised Version (British and American) "anguish") (Lu 16:24). The related verb sunodino is used in Ro 8:22 and is translated "travailing in pain together." In much the same sense, the word is used by Euripides (Helena, 727).

In Re 12:2 the woman clothed with the sun (basanizomene) was in pain to be delivered; the verb (basanizo) which means "to torture" is used both in Mt 8:6 in the account of the grievously tormented centurion's servant, and in the description of the laboring of the apostles' boat on the stormy Sea of Galilee (Mt 14:24). The former of these seems to have been a case of spinal meningitis. This verb occurs in Thucydides vii.86 (viii.92), where it means "being put to torture." In the two passages in Revelation where pain is mentioned the word is ponos, the pain which affected those on whom the fifth vial was poured (16:10), and in the description of the City of God where there is no more pain (21:4). The primary meaning of this word seems to be "toil," as in Iliad xxi.525, but it is used by Hippocrates to express disease (Aphorisma iv.44).

Alexander Macalister

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Penalty, punishment. 2. Suffering, distress, discomfort, ache, pang, torment, torture, anguish, agony, throe, twinge. 3. Uneasiness, disquietude, anxiety, solicitude, care, grief, sorrow, bitterness, affliction, woe, heartache, chagrin, vexation, anguish, dolor, trouble, distress, unhappiness, misery, wretchedness. II. v. a. 1. Torment, torture, rack, agonize, distress, hurt. 2. Disquiet, trouble, afflict, grieve, aggrieve, displease, annoy, plague, bore, harass, vex, worry, tease, chafe, fret, incommode, distress.

Foolish Dictionary

A sensation experienced on receiving a Punch, particularly the London one.

Moby Thesaurus

abscess, ache, aching, afflict, affliction, aggrieve, agonize, agony, ague, ail, anemia, anguish, ankylosis, annoyance, anoxia, apnea, asphyxiation, assiduousness, asthma, ataxia, atrophy, backache, barb the dart, bite, bitterness, bleakness, bleeding, blennorhea, blow, bore, bother, bruise, burn, cachexia, cachexy, castigation, chafe, chastening, chastisement, cheerlessness, chill, chills, colic, comfortlessness, condign punishment, constipation, constrain, convulse, convulsion, correction, coughing, cramp, crucify, cut, cut up, cyanosis, depress, depression, deserts, despair, diarrhea, diligence, disciplinary measures, discipline, discomfort, discomposure, dismalness, dismay, disquiet, distress, distressfulness, dizziness, dolor, drag, dreariness, dropsy, dysentery, dyspepsia, dyspnea, edema, effort, elbow grease, emaciation, excruciate, exertion, fainting, fatigue, ferule, fester, fever, fibrillation, flux, fret, gall, give pain, gnaw, grate, grief, grieve, grievousness, grind, gripe, growth, harass, harrow, headache, hemorrhage, high blood pressure, hurt, hurt the feelings, hydrops, hypertension, hypotension, icterus, indigestion, industry, inflame, inflammation, inflict pain, infliction, injure, injury, insomnia, irk, irritate, irritation, itching, jaundice, joylessness, judgment, judicial punishment, kill by inches, labor, labored breathing, lacerate, lament, lamentability, lamentation, lesion, low blood pressure, lumbago, marasmus, martyr, martyrize, misery, mourn, mournfulness, nasal discharge, nasty blow, nausea, necrosis, nemesis, nip, nuisance, ordeal, painfulness, pains, pains and punishments, pang, paralysis, passion, pathos, pay, payment, penal retribution, penalty, penology, pest, pierce, pinch, pitiability, pitiableness, pitifulness, poignancy, prick, prolong the agony, pruritus, punishment, punition, put to torture, rack, rankle, rash, rasp, regrettableness, retribution, retributive justice, rheum, rub, sadden, sadness, sclerosis, scourge, sedulousness, seizure, sharpness, shock, skin eruption, smarting, sneezing, sore, sore spot, soreness, sorrow, sorrowfulness, spasm, stab, sting, stitch, strain, stress, stress of life, stroke, suffer, suffering, tabes, tachycardia, tender spot, throes, toil, torment, torture, travail, trial, tribulation, trouble, try, tumor, tweak, twinge, twist, twist the knife, upset, upset stomach, vertigo, vexation, vomiting, wasting, well-deserved punishment, what-for, while, woe, woebegoneness, woefulness, wound, wrench, wretchedness, wring