painstakingly


Also found in: Thesaurus.

pains·tak·ing

 (pānz′tā′kĭng, pān′stā′kĭng)
adj.
1. Acting with, showing, or involving great care and attention. See Synonyms at meticulous.
2. Usage Problem Attended by difficulties; arduous.

pains′tak′ing·ly adv.
Usage Note: Painstaking is a compound of pains and taking, though it often sounds as if it were made from pain and staking. A painstaking effort is one in which someone takes pains to do something right. The word is sometimes used to mean "arduous" or "difficult," almost as if it meant "painful," but this usage is widely considered to be a mistake. In our 2008 survey, 74 percent of the Usage Panel rejected the sentence Traveling by bus through such a huge country was a painstaking ordeal.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adv.1.painstakingly - in a fastidious and painstaking manner; "it is almost a waste of time painstakingly to learn the routines of selling"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

painstakingly

[ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋlɪ] ADVlaboriosamente, concienzudamente, esmeradamente
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

painstakingly

[ˈpeɪnzteɪkɪŋli] adv
(= carefully) [check, search] → minutieusement; [restore, repair] → minutieusement
painstakingly researched → minutieusement documenté(e)
painstakingly restored → minutieusement restauré(e)
to painstakingly research sth → faire des recherches minutieuses sur qch
(= with a great deal of effort) [build up, gather] → à grand peine
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

painstakingly

advsorgfältig, gewissenhaft; one has to be so painstakingly preciseman muss äußerst genau sein
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

painstakingly

[ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋlɪ] adv (work) → accuratamente, diligentemente; (research) → minuziosamente
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
He recalled his labors on the Legal Code, and how painstakingly he had translated the articles of the Roman and French codes into Russian, and he felt ashamed of himself.
Having been instructed in the use of the indefinite pronoun "one" as giving a refined and elegant touch to literary efforts, Rebecca painstakingly rewrote her composition on solitude, giving it all the benefit of Miss Dearborn's suggestion.
We knew they were coming, so we painstakingly put out of sight or out of reach all Miss Ada's cushions.
The yellow, mildewed pages of the diary of a man long dead, and the records of the Colonial Office dovetail perfectly with the narrative of my convivial host, and so I give you the story as I painstakingly pieced it out from these several various agencies.
"I shall never get drunk," wrote Peter painstakingly.
Wilson began to study Luigi's palm, tracing life lines, heart lines, head lines, and so on, and noting carefully their relations with the cobweb of finer and more delicate marks and lines that enmeshed them on all sides; he felt of the fleshy cushion at the base of the thumb and noted its shape; he felt of the fleshy side of the hand between the wrist and the base of the little finger and noted its shape also; he painstakingly examined the fingers, observing their form, proportions, and natural manner of disposing themselves when in repose.
He sat down very slowly and painstakingly what of his great stiffness.
At a time when Jammu and Kashmir is painstakingly trying to persuade the Kashmiri youth to shun violence and return to their homes for living a normal life, the news of Aligarh Muslim University doctoral scholar Abdul Mannan Wani from Kashmir joining a terrorist group, the Hizb-ul-Mujahedin has shocked the whole country.
But every median, bridge bolt, and sidewalk curb has a backstory, and in The Road Taken author Henry Petroski painstakingly documents most of them.
AN RAF Spitfire once flown by a veteran of the Great Escape and painstakingly restored over five years is expected to fetch up to PS2.5 million at auction.
Exquisitely written and painstakingly researched, Leavell employs a mix of literary criticism and biography to investigate Moore's rich emotional landscape while expertly demonstrating how she became one of America's most beloved poets.
Each part of the employee's cubicle was painstakingly wrapped in wrapping paper, from the desk to the dividers, from the file boxes down to the trash bin.