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

If we take pains with our drains and water supply, so that human excrement does not get into it, and if we destroy the filth-carrying housefly, we do not have epidemics of typhoid.

From The Book of Life by Sinclair, Upton

Few people had ever thought it necessary to take pains with John Saxton, and he greatly enjoyed the novelty of this intercourse with a man of his own age who was not a bore.

From The Main Chance by Nicholson, Meredith

Thoughtfulness means, practically, the same thing as careful attention; to give our mind to a subject is to give heed to it, to take pains with it.

From How We Think by Dewey, John

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.