Idioms
See pains in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarybe at pains to do something
- to put a lot of effort into doing something correctly
- She was at great pains to stress the advantages of the new system.
for your pains
- (especially British English, often ironic) as payment, reward or thanks for something you have done
- I told her what I thought and got a mouthful of abuse for my pains!
take (great) pains (to do something) | go to great pains (to do something)
- to put a lot of effort into doing something
- The couple went to great pains to keep their plans secret.
take (great) pains with/over something
- to do something very carefully
- He always takes great pains with his lectures.
Check pronunciation:
pains