From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pains \Pains\ (p[=a]nz), noun Labor; toilsome effort; care or trouble taken; -- plural in form, but used with a singular or plural verb, commonly the former.
And all my pains is sorted to no proof. --Shak.
The pains they had taken was very great. --Clarendon.
The labored earth your pains have sowed and tilled. --Dryden.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: an effortful attempt to attain a goal [syn: {striving}, {nisus}, {strain}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
21 Moby Thesaurus words for "pains": assiduity, assiduousness, diligence, effort, elbow grease, endeavor, energy, exertion, hard pull, industriousness, industry, long pull, might and main, muscle, nerve and sinew, painstaking, painstakingness, sedulousness, thoroughgoingness, thoroughness, trouble
Define.com is a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated solely to the global public interest and the advancement of humanity. It belongs to all of us who have a desire to promote electronic democracy, science, creativity, imagination, reason, critical thinking, peace, race and gender equality, civil rights, equal access to education, personal liberty, free speech, animal rights, compassionate and nonviolent parenting, social and economic justice, global monetary reform, Secular Humanism, cognitive liberty and a permanent cessation of The War on Drugs.
Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
0