take pains with

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

By the nineteen-thirties, he seems too preoccupied to take pains with his style.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 16, 2015

"Pooh, my dear, it is of no use to take pains with him."

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 340, Supplementary Number (1828) by Various

But the engagement being there—a fact not apparently to be undone—both ladies showed themselves disposed to take pains with it, to protect it against aggression.

From Marcella by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

"Indeed, they have been so accustomed to take pains with it, that now it is often said that English cooks roast well, if they do nothing else well."

From Little Folks (July 1884) A Magazine for the Young by Various

I do not see that, if you take pains with yourself. 

From A Reputed Changeling Or Three Seventh Years Two Centuries Ago by Yonge, Charlotte Mary