From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpainfullypain‧ful‧ly /ˈpeɪnfəli/ ●○○ adverb 1 very – used to emphasize a bad or harmful quality that someone or something has painfully thin arms As a teenager, I was painfully shy. The road to peace is a painfully slow process. We are only too painfully aware of the damage his actions have caused.painfully obvious/clear/evident/apparent It was painfully obvious he’d rather not see her again.2 PAINHURT/CAUSE PAINwith pain or causing pain Robyn swallowed painfully.3 DIFFICULTneeding a lot of effort all the knowledge that he had so painfully acquired
Examples from the Corpus
painfully• She was making deep eye contact with me and a couple of her rings were digging into my fingers rather painfully.• Blacks, however, remain painfully aggrieved.• Finally he found his way painfully back to the house, and closed the door.• The smaller Chelonian whirled about and kicked him painfully in the ribs.• Her rings dug painfully into my fingers.• a painfully learned lesson• It was soon painfully obvious who the winner was in this contest.• She had resented Eline from the first moment and made her hate of Joe Harries painfully obvious.• Muriel watched her father die painfully of cancer.• In spite of this painfully slow start, today he is a millionaire.• Rebuilding the damaged bridge will be painfully slow.• Anorexics have a false idea of their own appearance, seeing themselves as fat even when they have become painfully thin.• At first, Andrews had found it painfully uncomfortable to play in public.painfully obvious/clear/evident/apparent• At Pontypool, the collision between a precise, scientific industry and a diffuse, unscientific local suspicion is painfully apparent.• She had resented Eline from the first moment and made her hate of Joe Harries painfully obvious.• Should the government reduce the actual frequency of tragedies, or should it simply make them less painfully obvious?• Sometimes the pitfalls in not looking at it from all these angles become painfully clear.• It is becoming painfully clear, however, that students at Stirling University can no longer afford to take their Association for granted.• It was soon painfully evident that the fears of the University Council regarding a minority plot to unseat them were justified.• This process makes the long-term costs of decisions painfully clear to the press and the public.• It was soon painfully obvious who the winner was in this contest. 