different between painstaking vs toilsome

English

Alternative forms

• (archaic) pains-taking

Etymology

From pains +? taking.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?pe?n?ste?k??/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pe?nz?te?k??/

Adjective

painstaking (comparative more painstaking, superlative most painstaking)

1. Carefully attentive to details; diligent in performing a process or procedure.
   • 1781, James Harris, Philological Inquiries

     All these painstaking men, considered together, may be said to have completed another species of criticism.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:industrious
• See also Thesaurus:meticulous

Derived terms

• painstakingly, painstakingness

Translations

Noun

painstaking (countable and uncountable, plural painstakings)

1. The application of careful and attentive effort.
   • c. 1836, Thomas Chalmers, Lectures on the Romans

     It is not by a flight of imagination that you gain the ascents of spiritual experience. It is by the toils and the watchings and the painstakings of a solid obedience.

   • 1852, Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, Sermons in the Order of a Twelvemonth, "Sermon VI"

     Behold what an abundant recompense attends the small processes of the earth, with the help of a little warm air; and what wealthy returns the industry of the husbandman and the florist is preparing from a few seeds and painstakings.

English

Alternative forms

• toylesome (obsolete)

Etymology

From toil +? -some.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?t??ls?m/

Adjective

toilsome (comparative more toilsome, superlative most toilsome)

1. Requiring continuous physical effort; laborious.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.10:

     ‘And you, Sir knight,’ / (Said she) ‘that taken have this toylesome paine / For wretched woman […]!’

Derived terms

• toilsomely
• toilsomeness
• untoilsome

Translations