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Synonyms

distraught

American  
[dih-strawt] / dɪˈstrɔt /

adjective

  1. distracted; deeply agitated.

  2. mentally deranged; crazed.

distraught British  
/ dɪˈstrɔːt /

adjective

  1. distracted or agitated

  2. rare mad

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • distraughtly adverb
  • overdistraught adjective
  • undistraught adjective

Etymology

Origin of distraught

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English variant of obsolete distract “distracted,” by association with straught, old past participle of stretch; distract

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.

At this point, spirits were usually so distraught and distracted by their own eternal fate that they did not notice anything about him.

From Literature

Or should she support a distraught mother’s efforts to save her daughter?

From The Wall Street Journal

The deaths of her grandparents in quick succession left her so distraught — they had raised her — that she never finished her dissertation.

From Salon

"We were distraught at the start and now we are angry."

From BBC

Poursaid, still distraught, said that the family is now leaving the area after their neighbours, fearing further strikes, were reluctant to rent to them.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.