(The New York Times, as it happens, judged "The Voyage Out" to be "painfully lacking, both in coherency and narrative interest. . . . One rather wonders what it is all about, for it does not seem to get anywhere in particular.")

Hutchins's second marriage in 1949, to his 31-year-old secretary, Vesta Orlick, proved to be the great personal consolation of the last third of his life - which was painfully lacking in public gratification.

In an African slum you will find among the very poor, living in dreadful circumstances, dignity and decency in abundance, which are painfully lacking in an average English suburb, although its inhabitants are much wealthier.

Ewood Park seems painfully lacking in direction from dug-out to boardroom.

"King's Ransom" is painfully lacking in rollicking physical energy.

This is how a political culture is born and a capital of social trust is established, which, irrespective of who wins the election, remains an important national asset - a thing Poland still painfully lacks.

But I was painfully lacking in the details he needed or wanted so that he groaned over the tantalizing snips and snatches I held out to him.

All of the summer's major music festivals have announced their lineups, and they're painfully lacking in the "youth in revolt" area.

Throughout the day, new technology was employed - a special stand was erected on Whitehall, equipped with telephones and ladies' lavatories, which had been painfully lacking at the coronation 59 years earlier.

"Coordination is painfully lacking in most of health care right now," said Martin J. Hatlie, president of the Partnership for Patient Safety, an educational and consulting organization.