pains
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /peɪnz/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪnz
- Homophone: panes
Noun
pains pl (plural only)
- Trouble taken doing something; attention to detail; careful effort.
- [1877], Anna Sewell, “A London Cab Horse”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part III, page 158:
- Captain went out in the cab all the morning. Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably, as if he had been John Manly over again.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. […] Next day she […] tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and had perhaps spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.
Derived terms
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /pɛ̃/
Middle French
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