PAINFULLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does painfully mean? 

• PAINFULLY (adverb)
  The adverb PAINFULLY has 2 senses:

1. unpleasantly

2. in or as if in pain

  Familiarity information: PAINFULLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PAINFULLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unpleasantly

Synonyms:

distressingly; painfully

Context example:

his ignorance was painfully obvious

Pertainym:

painful (exceptionally bad or displeasing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In or as if in pain

Synonyms:

painfully; sorely

Context example:

sorely wounded

Antonym:

painlessly (without pain)

Pertainym:

painful (causing physical or psychological pain)

 Context examples 

I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and that the blood was pouring from my wound.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was a well-built man, and his muscles seemed on the point of bursting out of the painfully new and ready-made black clothes he wore.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“But I am still here, all here,” the hand scrawled more slowly and painfully than ever.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The tumult of her mind, was now painfully great.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The light had become painfully bright.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Brissenden panted and gasped painfully for a moment, then began to chuckle.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Well, he said, after some minutes' silence, it is strange; but that sentence has penetrated my breast painfully.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“I am painfully situated, Utterson; my position is a very strange—a very strange one. It is one of those affairs that cannot be mended by talking.”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Through all this sneering talk, I was made to feel the threat of death that overhung me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in my breast.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This leads to an inhibition of serotonin activity and results in vasoconstriction of the painfully dilated blood vessels during migraine attack.

(Frovatriptan Succinate, NCI Thesaurus)