PAIN, n. [L. paena; Gr. penalty, and pain, labor.]

1. An uneasy sensation in animal bodies, of any degree from slight uneasiness to extreme distress or torture, proceeding from pressure, tension or spasm, separation of parts by violence, or any derangement of functions. Thus violent pressure or stretching of a limb gives pain; inflammation produces pain; wounds, bruises and incisions give pain.
2. Labor; work; toil; laborious effort. In this sense, the plural only is used; as, to take pains; to be at the pains. High without taking pains to rise. – Waller. The same with pains we gain, but lose with ease. – Pope.
3. Labor; toilsome effort; task; in the singular. [Not now used.] – Spenser. Waller.
4. Uneasiness of mind; disquietude; anxiety; solicitude for the future; grief, sorrow for the past. We suffer pain when we fear or expect evil; we feel pain at the loss of friends or property.
5. The throws or distress of travail or childbirth. She bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her. – 1 Sam. iv.
6. Penalty; punishment suffered or denounced; suffering or evil inflicted as a punishment for a crime, or annexed to the commission of a crime. None shall presume to fly under pain of death. – Addison. Interpose, on pain of my displeasure, Betwixt their swords. – Dryden.

1. To make uneasy or to disquiet; to cause uneasy sensations in the body, of any degree of intensity; to make simply uneasy, or to distress, to torment. The pressure of fetters may pain a limb; the rack pains the body.
2. To afflict; to render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress. We are pained at the death of a friend; grief pains the heart; we are often pained with fear or solicitude. I am pained at my very heart. – Jer. iv.
3. Reciprocally, to pain one's self, to labor; to make toilsome efforts. [Little used.] – Spenser.

1. Punishment suffered or denounced; suffering or evil inflicted as a punishment for crime, or connected with the commission of a crime; penalty.
   
   
   Chaucer.

   We will, by way of mulct or pain, lay it upon him. Bacon.

   Interpose, on pain of my displeasure. Dryden.

   None shall presume to fly, under pain of death. Addison.

2. To inflict suffering upon as a penalty] to punish.
   
   
   [Obs.] Wyclif (Acts xxii. 5).
3. Any uneasy sensation in animal bodies, from slight uneasiness to extreme distress or torture, proceeding from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; bodily distress; bodily suffering; an ache; a smart.
   
   
   "The pain of Jesus Christ." Chaucer.

   * Pain may occur in any part of the body where sensory nerves are distributed, and it is always due to some kind of stimulation of them. The sensation is generally referred to the peripheral end of the nerve.

4. To put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to afflict with uneasy sensations of any degree of intensity; to torment; to torture; as, his dinner or his wound pained him; his stomach pained him.
   
   

   Excess of cold, as well as heat, pains us. Locke.

5. Specifically, the throes or travail of childbirth.
   
   

   She bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her. 1 Sam. iv. 19.

6. To render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve; as a child's faults pain his parents.
   
   

   I am pained at my very heart. Jer. iv. 19.

   To pain one's self, to exert or trouble one's self; to take pains; to be solicitous. [Obs.] "She pained her to do all that she might." Chaucer.

   Syn. -- To disquiet; trouble; afflict; grieve; aggrieve; distress; agonize; torment; torture.

7. Uneasiness of mind; mental distress; disquietude; anxiety; grief; solicitude; anguish.
   
   
   Chaucer.

   In rapture as in pain. Keble.

8. See Pains, labor, effort.
   
   

   Bill of pains and penalties. See under Bill. -- To die in the pain, to be tortured to death. [Obs.] Chaucer.