pain — ODE · Shobdo

pain /peɪn

▸ noun [mass noun]

1 highly unpleasant physical sensation caused by illness or injury:

she's in great pain

[count noun] chest pains.

▪ mental suffering or distress:

the pain of loss.

▪ informal, derogatory (also pain in the neck) an annoying or tedious person or thing:

she's a pain

it's not a huge problem—just a bit of a pain

I must have been a pain in the neck, always asking questions.

2 (pains) great care or trouble:

she took pains to see that everyone ate well.

▸ verb [with object] cause mental or physical pain to:

it pains me to say this

her legs had been paining her.

▪ [no object] mainly North American English (of a part of the body) hurt:

sometimes my right hand would pain.

– PHRASES

be at pains to do something take great care or trouble to do something:

he is at pains to point out that he isn't like that.

for one's pains informal
as an unfairly bad return for one's efforts:

he was sued for his pains.

no pain, no gain
suffering is necessary in order to achieve something:

get them knees up—no pain, no gain!.

[originally used as a slogan in fitness classes]

on pain of (also under pain of)
the penalty for disobedience or shortcoming being:

they proscribed all such practices on pain of death.

– ORIGIN Middle English (in the sense ‘suffering inflicted as punishment for an offence’): from Old French peine, from Latin poena ‘penalty’, later ‘pain’.