I got a painful sunburn.
We can't ignore our country's painful history of slavery.
His questions brought up a lot of painful memories.
It was painful to watch.
Recent Examples on the WebLosing their father was also excruciatingly painful for the couple's children, Colton Kyle and McKenna Kyle, who were just 8 and 6 when he was killed and speak publicly for the first time about their hero dad in this week’s issue of PEOPLE.—Kc Baker, Peoplemag, 20 Apr. 2024 But why does opening your wallet at the gas station become more painful during certain times of the year, and what is driving the recent fuel spike?—Kristin J. Bender, The Mercury News, 19 Apr. 2024 But the medical examiner had more painful news: Before the crash, Cole’s granddaughters — one 9 years old, the other 8 months old — had either fallen from or been pushed out of their mother’s car on the 405 Freeway.—Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2024 Others, much more painful: the murder of Deshaun Hill Jr., shot and killed two years ago just blocks from the school.—Meg Anderson, NPR, 19 Apr. 2024 Swift has sung before about her inability to get over things, but what’s even more painful is her inability to understand how other people can get over things.—The New Yorker, 19 Apr. 2024 Dozens in England volunteered to be infected with painful, itching scabies to test better treatments, because the wars of the past warned that the ailment would soon blaze through the troops abroad.—Rachel Lance, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Apr. 2024 While venomous snake bites are painful, death is rare with treatment, with only about 10 per year nationally out of about 8,000 bites.—Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Apr. 2024 Right now, however, with the war in Gaza a costly and painful burden for six months and counting, Netanyahu is risking a much wider war.—Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, TIME, 9 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'painful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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