▪ I. painstaking, n.
(ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋ)
[f. pains, pl. of pain n.1 (sense 6) + taking, gerund of take v.]
The taking of pains; the bestowal of careful and attentive labour in order to the accomplishment of something; assiduous effort.
| 1556 Olde Antichrist 85 This is their paynes taking and trauaile. 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. 5 Their posterity haue liued in sorrow and paines-taking euer since. 1737 Whiston Josephus, Hist. i. xviii. §2 (1777), They did not shew any want of pains-taking. 1888 Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. v. 44 That mastery of the art of preaching which results from laborious painstaking. |
▪ II. painstaking, a.
(ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + taking, pr. pple. of take v.]
That takes pains; bestowing attentive effort for the accomplishment of some result; careful and industrious; assiduous.
| 1696 Tryon Misc. i. 23 The Richer sort..[are] much more Distempered than the Ordinary pains-taking People. 1712 Cooke Voy. S. Sea 399 The Natives are..industrious, and Pains taking. 1882 W. Ballantine Exper. xi. 116 The case was tried..before..a most painstaking judge. |
b. Of actions, productions, etc.: Marked or characterized by attentive care.
| 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt xxiv, The satisfaction of receiving Mr. Sherlock's painstaking production in print. 1895 J. W. Budd in Law Times XCIX. 544/2 The..painstaking manner in which they superintend..this department. |
Hence ˈpainsˌtakingly adv., with careful and attentive effort, assiduously.
| a 1861 Clough Poems, etc. (1869) I. 318 Setting himself laboriously and painstakingly to work. 1891 Sat. Rev. 19 Dec. 705/2 This little book has been painstakingly prepared. |