Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • With painstaking, or careful attention to every detail; carefully.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a painstaking manner; very slowly and carefully.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a fastidious and painstaking manner

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Nin painstakingly copied into her diary her worst review, from among many bad reviews, by Elizabeth Hardwick, no less, who declared ‘no writer I can think of has more passionately embraced thin air’ and described her work as ‘vague, dreamy, mercilessly pretentious’.

    Getting Published « Tales from the Reading Room 2009

  • The man grimaces, but he signs his name painstakingly, gripping the stand.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • She read the titles painstakingly: "Corn in California," "Silage

    The Little Lady of the Big House Jack London 1896

  • You follow each and every word painstakingly, like watching grass grow.

    What I cooked last night. 2007

  • BLITZER: Light teams are back at work for what's being called a painstakingly hard search for the missing aviator, Steve Fossett.

    CNN Transcript Sep 7, 2007 2007

  • I like the way my tongue goes over "painstakingly", doing it very carefully, like I'm doing tongue tip-toeing.

    Saving the World by Saving My Words Sharon Bakar 2005

  • Being able to see it up close provides a view into the kind of painstakingly detailed work that not even the best binoculars could pick up.

    NYT > Home Page By ERIK PIEPENBURG 2011

  • Being able to see it up close provides a view into the kind of painstakingly detailed work that not even the best binoculars could pick up.

    NYT > Home Page By ERIK PIEPENBURG 2011

  • Dave Schulz, treasurer of the group, said the charter language was "painstakingly" reviewed by lawyers to retain the six district councilmen and to replace the six at-large councilmen with three "super-district" councilmen.

    unknown title 2009

  • Not surprisingly, we lack detailed statistical evidence on when and how sexual behavior itself changed, but sociologists David Harding and Christopher Jencks have painstakingly pieced together survey data from a variety of sources on when and how norms changed, and specifically on the question of whether premarital sex was right or wrong.2

    American Grace Robert D. Putnam 2010

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