1
: feeling pain : hurt
2
: expressing or involving pain
a pained expression
with pained surprise
Examples of pained in a Sentence
She wore a pained expression on her face.
He truly looked pained when he heard the news.
Recent Examples on the Web
After seven episodes of pained teeth-gritting and wide-eyed astonishment, he’s found closure in confronting the man who killed his father (or not) and finding only a weak old guy too sickly to punch.
—
Eliana Dockterman, Time, 4 Apr. 2025
The tension between Akhtar’s coiled energy and Hoss’s elegant, pained resignation provides a good part of the show’s crackle.
—Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2025
In Russia, state power and high culture have long existed in a pained, but seemingly inexorable, symbiosis.
—Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2025
But for a man of few words in front of an audience, his music is ripe with satire and vulnerability, and his live performance is riddled with excessive performances of emotion, from his pained facial expressions, hand gestures and smooth dance moves.
—Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAY, 27 Feb. 2025
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Eliana Dockterman, Time, 4 Apr. 2025
The tension between Akhtar’s coiled energy and Hoss’s elegant, pained resignation provides a good part of the show’s crackle.
—Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2025
In Russia, state power and high culture have long existed in a pained, but seemingly inexorable, symbiosis.
—Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 13 Mar. 2025
But for a man of few words in front of an audience, his music is ripe with satire and vulnerability, and his live performance is riddled with excessive performances of emotion, from his pained facial expressions, hand gestures and smooth dance moves.
—Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAY, 27 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pained
Cite this Entry
“Pained.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pained. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
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