painstaking

UK/ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋ/US/ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,512 of 15,258neutral

Painstaking means done with very great care over every single detail. Slow, and nothing skipped.

It is a compliment about method rather than talent, and painstaking research, painstaking restoration and painstaking detail are all standard. The word is literally taking pains, which is exactly what it describes, and the pains here means trouble rather than hurt. It suits work that could not be hurried without being ruined. Meticulous and thorough are its close neighbours.

Definitions of painstaking

1adjectivepainstakingDone with great care and attention to detail.C1
“It was painstaking work and it took him four years.”

Where it comes from

From pains + taking; see take pains. The pronunciation which dominates in the United States suggests a of the word as pain + staking.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 36 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

painstaking in the wild

" I found him always, from the beginning of his study of the law, most painstaking, straightforward, and upright, with respect to whatever he had to do.
John Gill (judge)
To print the pattern Morris used the painstaking indigo dye textile printing method he admired above all forms of printing.
Strawberry Thief
In this case, the satire comes from the depiction of the graphical depiction of the spontaneous painting motion in painstaking painterly detail.
Big Painting No. 6

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary