PAINFUL in a Sentence

Learn PAINFUL from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

392 example sentences for PAINFUL, such as:

1. His skin felt painful and prickly.
2. Elinor's office was a painful one.
3. He took a painful blow on the shoulder.
4. It was a painful and unpopular decision.
5. He did not want to mention the painful past.

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 Meanings and Examples of PAINFUL
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
painful
 a.  causing misery or distress
Classic Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
1  After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of my desires was the most gratifying consummation of my toils.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 4
2  I remained two days at Lausanne, in this painful state of mind.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 7
3  Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 23
4  It may be true that, to a sensitive observer, there was some thing exquisitely painful in it.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Context  Highlight   In II. THE MARKET-PLACE
5  It was impossible to doubt that, whatever painful efficacy there might be in the secret sting of remorse, a deadlier venom had been infused into it by the hand that proffered relief.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Context  Highlight   In XIII. ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER
6  Nay, the longer they were together the more doubtful seemed the nature of his regard; and sometimes, for a few painful minutes, she believed it to be no more than friendship.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 4
7  I love Willoughby, sincerely love him; and suspicion of his integrity cannot be more painful to yourself than to me.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 15
8  As these considerations occurred to her in painful succession, she wept for him, more than for herself.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 23
9  And as she could now have nothing more painful to hear on the subject than had already been told, she did not mistrust her own ability of going through a repetition of particulars with composure.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 23
10  He could not then avoid it, but her touch seemed painful to him, and he held her hand only for a moment.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 28
11  Early in February, within a fortnight from the receipt of Willoughby's letter, Elinor had the painful office of informing her sister that he was married.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 32
12  Elinor's office was a painful one.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 37
13  But her promise of relating it to her sister was invariably painful.
Sense and Sensibility By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 45
14  As I walked on to the hotel, I felt that a dread, much exceeding the mere apprehension of a painful or disagreeable recognition, made me tremble.
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In Chapter XXVIII
15  After an interval of suspense on my part that was quite enthralling and almost painful, I saw his hand appear on the other side of Miss Skiffins.
Great Expectations By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In Chapter XXXVII
Example Sentence: (182 in 13 pages)
16  He did not want to mention the painful past.
17  Many a parent has had to go through this same painful process.
18  The technique is painful, admittedly, but it benefits the patient greatly.
19  Perhaps she gets drunk to obliterate painful memories.
20  Removing the splinters from the wound was a long and painful process.
21  Coming off the drug was a long and painful process for him.
22  He took a painful blow on the shoulder.
23  His skin felt painful and prickly.
24  His wife's death left a painful void in his life.
25  It was a painful and unpopular decision.
26  It could create a painful dilemma for the group's members: either accept a lower price or give up additional production quotas they have just given themselves.
27  Upsets may occur, even painful misunderstandings and separations, yet the essential love remains, and might again flourish, more temperately.
28  The only answer I can think of offhand is the bond market and those who have an interest in fixed incomes since inflation would be painful for both.
29  A painful, burning sensation on the outer side of the thigh may mean that one of the large sensory nerves to your legs.
30  The skin underneath is constantly breaking down and is very painful.