distressful

American  

[dih-stres-fuhl] / dɪˈstrɛs fəl /

adjective

1. causing or involving distress.

   the distressful circumstances of poverty and sickness.

2. full of, feeling, or indicating distress.

   a distressful cry.

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Other Word Forms

• distressfully
  adverb
• distressfulness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of distressful

First recorded in 1585–95; distress + -ful

Example Sentences

The foul familiar lineaments affright him; Its pose of menace and its pointing hand To caution urge, to providence invite him, To foil this scourge of the Distressful Land.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, August 30, 1890 by Various

Distressful, dark and difficult as is his environment and time, he suffers and ponders and resolves, with forces undivided, none reserved.

From Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits; A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians by Beardslee, Clark S.

Distressful she had been, a land Of kine curtailed and burning ricks, Until we others oped our purses To rectify her feudal curses And freed the soil with generous hand— Prior to nineteen-six.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, May 20, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir

The Gardener declares it is one of those Green Flies which are the pest of this Distressful Country.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 22, 1893 by Various

Distressful elements crept in by reason of our unavoidable furtiveness; we ignored them, hid them from each other, and attempted to hide them from ourselves.

From The New Machiavelli by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)