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painfully

/ˈpeɪnfəli/
/ˈpeɪnfəli/
IPA guide

Doing something painfully means doing it in a way that hurts a whole lot, like painfully stubbing your bare toe on the sidewalk when you're showing off on your new skateboard.

If something occurs in a way that causes pain, it happens painfully. This can range from painfully pulling a muscle when you're playing tennis to painfully coughing when you've got a sore throat. You can also use this adverb figuratively, for something that seems exaggerated or extreme: "The novel was painfully overwrought, full of overly dramatic prose" or "My brother is painfully shy."

Definitions of painfully
  1. adverb
    unpleasantly
    “his ignorance was painfully obvious”
    synonyms: distressingly
  2. adverb
    in or as if in pain
    “she moved painfully forward”
    synonyms: sorely
    see moresee less
    antonyms:
    painlessly
    without pain
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