pain

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An unpleasant physical feeling caused by illness or injury.

   The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain.

2. 2
   noun

   A feeling of mental or emotional suffering.

   She still feels the pain of losing her closest friend.

3. 3
   noun

   An annoying person or thing.

   Filling in all these forms is a real pain.

4. 4
   verb

   To cause someone emotional suffering.

   It pains me to see my children struggling at school.

Common collocations

• constant pain Adjective + noun
• severe pain Adjective + noun
• sharp pain Adjective + noun
• cause pain Verb + noun
• ease pain Verb + noun
• feel pain Verb + noun
• relieve pain Verb + noun
• chronic pain Adjective + noun

From Middle English peyne, payne, from Old French and Anglo-Norman peine, paine, from Latin poena (“punishment, pain”), from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “bloodmoney, weregild, fine, price paid, penalty”), from Proto-Hellenic *kʷoinā́, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷoynéh₂ (“payment”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *cěnà (“price”)). Doublet of peine. Compare Danish pine, Norwegian Bokmål pine, German Pein, Dutch pijn, Afrikaans pyn. See also pine (the verb). Partly displaced native Old English sār (whence Modern English sore).

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