painfully

From Middle English peinfully, paynefully, equivalent to painful +‎ -ly.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪnfəli/

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painfully (comparative more painfully, superlative most painfully)

1. In a painful manner; as if in pain.

   I limped painfully down the stairs.

   • 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter IX, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, page 193:

     The unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence of the room.

2. (informal) Badly; poorly.

   That was the most painfully sung rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” that I’ve ever heard.

Some adjectives commonly collocating with painfully:

• painfully long
• painfully slow
• painfully boring
• painfully close
• painfully obvious