How to Use take (great) pains in a Sentence

take (great) pains

idiom
  • In the weeks leading up to the test, students take pains to eat and sleep right, like athletes before a big game.
    Andrew Jeong, Washington Post, 21 Dec. 2023
  • But Niknam seems to take pains to highlight how these games are designed to give the house an edge and drain the players' money.
    Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 21 Sep. 2022
  • Bob Moses’s legion of admirers should now take pains to carry on that part of his work.
    Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker, 26 July 2021
  • Smola and Wallner are aware of the criticisms and take pains to explain the scope and limitations of the Klimt project.
    Suhita Shirodkar, Wired, 24 Nov. 2021
  • The extent to which the actors take pains to hide the C2 infrastructure cannot be overstated.
    Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 28 June 2022
  • As the film and its subject, perfumer François Demachy, take pains to explain, fragrances are transportive.
    Leah Prinzivalli, Allure, 22 Feb. 2021
  • The women barely looked at each other or smiled, and appeared to take pains to stare straight ahead after entering the church.
    Mary Jordan, Washington Post, 29 Nov. 2023
  • The expectations that have built up around this research are so high that experts take pains to temper them.
    Ellen Barry, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2022
  • One wrinkle for people who take pains to optimize their airflow: The LCD screens are only visible on one side of each fan.
    Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica, 20 Dec. 2023
  • Ideally, your friend would take pains to ensure that her son was never in a position to be driven by her husband.
    Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2023
  • Some shelters, for example those catering to victims of abuse, take pains to hide their location.
    Washington Post, 4 Jan. 2021
  • Some masked lucha libre stars take pains to remain unknown beyond their stage identities.
    Susan Orlean, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2022
  • The president will take pains not to be seen as favoring any of Israel’s competing parties in the upcoming election, Israel’s fifth in the last three years.
    Tyler Pager, Washington Post, 13 July 2022
  • Rescue Rangers is a Disney+ exclusive, not in theaters (as the boys take great pains to mention repeatedly during their guest-hosting).
    Vulture, 20 May 2022
  • In Lowe’s line of work (pop music), musicians take great pains to obscure their age and maintain their youthful identities as long as possible.
    Magnus Henriksson, SPIN, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Also, one political regime might take pains to restore an ecosystem, only for another to come along and destroy it again.
    Matt Simon, WIRED, 14 Dec. 2023
  • For Clarke and others joining forces under the banner of Blue Lives Matter, the opposition is police reform of any kind, even when carried out by people who take pains to say nice things about the police.
    Melissa Gira Grant, The New Republic, 24 Aug. 2020
  • Mindful of such sentiments, many managers take pains to stress the lighthearted nature of such competitions.
    Te-Ping Chen, WSJ, 22 Apr. 2021
  • On the other hand, alcohol and the manner in which it is consumed has remained fundamentally unchanged for hundreds of years, as the label on your favorite whiskey will take great pains to remind you.
    Eben Weiss, Outside Online, 9 Nov. 2022
  • Vendors that make contact center software and have high ethical standards take great pains to ensure that their customers use that software in compliance with the TCPA law.
    Jonathan Rosenberg, Forbes, 10 June 2022
  • For instance, Bhutan’s Buddhist mask dances are a huge draw for visitors and travelers, and people often take great pains to schedule their trips during one of these vibrant festivals.
    Saumya Ancheri, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Sep. 2021
  • If the 45th President was sometimes pictured looking sullen as other leaders united against him, Biden seemed to take pains to look relaxed and comfortable among the world leaders, even when differences arose.
    Kevin Liptak, CNN, 13 June 2021
  • President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior officials take pains to thank both male and female defenders of the country.
    Olga Oliker, Foreign Affairs, 21 Nov. 2022
  • Hevolution executives take pains to note that while funded by the royal family, the foundation is a nonprofit and not an arm of the Saudi government.
    Robert Weisman, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Sep. 2023
  • As Wartzman notes, this is not an easy phenomenon to track, because corporations take pains to hide information about where their revenue goes.
    Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 16 Apr. 2022
  • But designers must take pains to ensure that the presentational fireworks don’t get ahead of reality.
    Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 23 July 2022
  • Jewelry houses are also adept at determining a client’s spending potential and will take pains to do what’s needed to facilitate the progression to the next level.
    Jill Newman, Robb Report, 20 Nov. 2022
  • While Kassim is happy to discuss his business, many successful ambergris hunters and traders take great pains to maintain secrecy about their activities.
    Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Sep. 2021
  • Presidents traditionally take pains not to wade into union disputes, but Mr. Biden campaigned on a very different platform.
    CBS News, 2 Mar. 2021
  • Though November’s consumer-price index shows that inflation has cooled a bit, Americans should take pains to protect themselves for the uncertain economic times ahead, advisers said.
    Julia Carpenter, WSJ, 14 Dec. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'take (great) pains.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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