Painful1. (a.) Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing.
2. (a.) Requiring labor or toil; difficult; executed with laborious effort; as a painful service; a painful march.
3. (a.) Painstaking; careful; industrious.
Thesaurus Entries
Herculean, aching, achy, acute, affecting, afflictive, aggravating, agonizing, algetic, annoying, arduous, assiduous, atrocious, backbreaking, besetting, biting, bitter, bleak, bothersome, burdensome, burning, careful, cheerless, comfortless, conscientious, cramping, cruel, crushing, demanding, deplorable, depressing, depressive, detailed, diligent, discomforting, dismal, dismaying, disquieting, distasteful, distressful, distressing, disturbing, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, earnest, effortful, exacting, exasperating, excruciating, forced, galling, gnawing, grave, grievous, griping, grueling, harassing, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, harrowing, harsh, heavy, hefty, hurtful, hurting, irksome, irritating, joyless, killing, labored, laborious, lamentable, meticulous, mournful, moving, onerous, operose, oppressive, painstaking, paroxysmal, pathetic, piercing, piteous, pitiable, plaguey, poignant, pungent, punishing, racking, raw, regrettable, rigorous, rueful, sad, saddening, scrupulous, sedulous, sensitive, severe, sharp, shooting, smarting, sore, sorrowful, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, stabbing, stinging, strained, strenuous, tender, thorough, thoroughgoing, throbbing, toilsome, tormenting, torturous, touching, tough, troublesome, troubling, trying, unappetizing, uncomfortable, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, uphill, vexatious, vexing, wearisome, woebegone, woeful, worrisome, worrying, wretched