Can we use the word paining

Is there a word ‘Paining’? TFD shows it as a verb for pain. However some of my friends here say there is no such word.

‘Once the game is over the king and the pawn go back in the same box’

thar is correct, and he has cleverly shown you the most common way in which it is used.

Otherwise, it is much more common to use «to cause <indirect object> pain» or «to feel pain» (where the word «pain» is a noun) than «to pain <indirect object>» or to use «pain» as an intransitive verb.

A sentence like «A foolish act results in certain paining» sounds very odd indeed; «I pained for you» is completely off the table as far as I’m concerned

«Pain» is an abstract noun as well as a verb but «Paining» is no word. However, the only ways it is used as a verb are in the present simple ( as in «It pains me to see you like this.»)and the past(It pained me to see her like that). Normally it is not even used in the past tense because the word «ached» is preferred over it making it «my heart ached at the thought of losing her. There is no -ing form to this word.

Please reply to this if it answers your question.

much as it pains me to disagree with a newbie
(not again? too much? OK, I won’t do that bit again)
but, anyway

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Chapter XII of Volume II (Chap. 35)

don’t mess with the Oz!

It is rare and only used for that particular small range of constructions, but I do believe paining was and is a perfectly good word!

Yep!

«My leg’s paining me at the moment» — fairly common type of usage.

It tends to be a bit longer term than ‘hurting’.

My leg is hurting — just at the moment because I walked into a chair.

My leg is paining me — due to the arthritis that came on a few months ago.

Of every million words printed in the «Google Books» corpus between 1984 and 2000, five of them were ‘paining’.

I guess ‘paining me’ is a classier way of saying ‘giving me gyp!’

maybe ‘paining’ is not so known now, because the alternative is ‘my leg is **** ** *****!’
(chose from a wide range of expressions to describe it most accurately)

Although I wouldn’t embiggen its scope of applicability, I do concur that «paining» is an eminently cromulent locution.

I think that is what the doctor called my sports injury!

I too had heard that «paining» is normally not used in progressive tense and that alternate expressions are more usual. However, some inputs in earlier posts showed that «paining» is used. So I checked «in pain» and «is paining» on the Ngram Viewer. It showed that «in pain» is quite common and the comparative graph on the use of «is paining» does not compare.

I also checked up Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. It more or less confirmed the contents of Ngram Viewer.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
verb(not used in the progressive tenses) (formal) to cause sb pain or make them unhappy
SYN hurt: [vn] She was deeply pained by the accusation.: (old use) The wound still pained him occasionally. Ç [vn to inf] It pains me to see you like this. [also vn that]

The essence of the above was mentioned elsewhere too. I have mentioned these findings with a view to generating more discussion on the use of Continuous Tense of «pain».

Perhaps it’s local or dialectic, but it was common when I was young (in Lancashire, which probably means in most of the northern parts of England) and I still hear it — though not so commonly as ‘hurting’ — here in Scotland.

My necks paining me something awful!
I have a pain in the neck.
My neck’s hurting something awful!

And many a chapel bell the hour is telling
Paining me through — those sounds to me grow strange — John Keats
My heart was paining me, even as my fellow prisoner had told me his was paining him just before he died. — A Time to Speak Jeanne Manning 1999
. . . my poor leg, which was paining me so terribly all day I could hardly stand. — Tell Me a Story Joseph J. Sollish — 2000
. . . the first sentence should not be construed as reporting where some sensation is located, but merely what bodily part is paining me. — An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind E. J. Lowe — 2000

I think it’s a dialect word in BE — I’ve encountered quite a few people who use it.

But in South African English it is definitely a valid word, and my kids grew up hearing it around them.

Clearly «paining» is the present participle of «to pain«. It is not much used, but that does not invalidate its existence.

As a verb, «pain» is more or less synonymous with «hurt» and «ache«. I note, though, that in general «

pain

» is used only transitively, while «

ache

» is always intransitive, whereas «

hurt

» can be used either way.

Yes — I don’t think I have ever heard ‘paining’ as an intransitive.

I don’t know why, it is equivalent to ‘ache’ and almost identical in meaning to ‘hurt’ which are often used that way, as you say.

However, the Random House shows it as both transitive and intransitive and has a stative definition — ‘to have pain’. I guess rather like ‘ailing’.

Hi PfP.

Try just looking up the simple verb — pain — rather than the present participle.
It is not an adjective or a noun in this case, it’s just part of the verb.

Hello DragOnspeaker!
I believe we are looking at two different resources. Your above seems to be from Oxford Dictionaries, which is put out by the OED but is not the same as the online OED (OED.com). Here is what the OED online has (in part) for entry word «paining» as an adjective:

paining, adj.
Pronunciation: Brit. paning#_gb_1.mp3 /ˈpeɪnɪŋ/ , U.S. paning#_us_1.mp3 /ˈpeɪnɪŋ/
Frequency (in current use): [shows band 2 but it doesn’t copy to this platform]
Etymology: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: pain v., -ing suffix2.
< pain v. + -ing suffix2.

That pains; causing or accompanied by hurt or suffering.

1532 (▸c1385) Usk’s Test. Loue in Wks. G. Chaucer i. f. cccxxxii, Thylke persones..not coarted by paynynge dures, openly knowlegeden.
1698 M. Lister in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 20 246 A paining Grief towards the bottom of their Bellies, which did grind and torment them.
a1758 A. Ramsay Wks. (1944–73) III. 99 Haste, calm Reason, to our Aid And paining Thoughts subdue.
1765 H. Brooke Fool of Quality I. iv. 106 His Idea was no longer accompanied by Envy or Resentment, but by an affectionate and sweet, though paining, Remorse.
a1864 J. Clare Early Poems (1989) II. 249 Jealousy contrives to sow Round it many a paining thorn.
1891 Eastern Daily Press 24 July 4/6 Beyond a slight paining sprain and some cuts about the mare, no harm was done.
a1958 D. Schwartz Coriolanus & his Mother ii, in Summer Knowl. (1967) 108 Brutus and Velutus Provoke him more..scratch hard All of his paining skin.
1994 C. McWilliam Debatable Land (1995) ii. 64 The city provided him with a distraction from his paining heart during the first year his mother passed in the earth.

The noun entry is much too long to reproduce here!

Hi!

Yes — I haven’t paid my dues for the full OED.com. I have the 24-volume set on my Kindle, but not here with me.

However, since there is a verb entry for «to pain» in the ‘Oxford Dictionary’ site, I would expect there to be one in the OED.

The original question is about the

verb

, not an adjective or noun.

What does the OED.com say about the verb ‘pain’ (which has a participle ‘paining’)?

Not argumentative — more ‘discussive’ — a new word!

I was just curious what the OED has to say.

I’ve never heard ‘paining’ used as an adjective — «I have a paining neck» — or as a noun — «There is a paining in my neck» — but as a participle of the verb, I consider it

relatively

common — «My neck’s paining me.» (not so common as «my neck hurts», but not ‘unusual’).

Nobody says that word ever in any circumstance unless they are foreign or they’ve been diagnosed with a learning disability.

None of the detailed explanations matter because its a stupidity.

BOOM

Going swimming and complaining that it’s wet.
Going to a nudist area and complaining that people are naked.
Going to a dictionary site and complaining that people use words.

Your attitude is paining me.

Obviously not an English-speaker. And a very opinionated one, too.

Thinks that Chaucer, Keats, Jane Austin and the Oxford English Dictionary «are foreign or they’ve been diagnosed with a learning disability».

And their writings are «a stupidity».

Not likely to be said by a native. We would more likely say, «My stomach hurts», or «I feel/I’m feeling pain in my stomach».

Noun

The medication may upset your stomach but if you experience acute abdominal pain call your doctor.

I’ve had chronic back pain since the accident.

The medicine provides 12 hours of pain relief.

I feel a dull pain if I touch the bruise.

the pain of a difficult childhood

It is a story about the joys and pains of life.

Rush hour traffic is such a pain.

This orange is a pain to peel.

Verb

As much as it pains me to admit it, she was right.

my poor head was paining so from all that racket

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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘pain.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Pronunciation: 

US [peɪn]


UK [peɪn]