distressful

[dih-stres-fuhl]

adjective

1. causing or involving distress.

   the distressful circumstances of poverty and sickness.

2. full of, feeling, or indicating distress.

   a distressful cry.

Other Word Forms

• distressfully adverb
• distressfulness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of distressful¹

First recorded in 1585–95; distress + -ful

Example Sentences

When Roe was decided in 1973, she wrote, the justices maintained that an unwanted pregnancy would doom women to “a distressful life and future.”

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In Roe, the Supreme Court said that an unwanted pregnancy could lead women to “a distressful life and future,” and in a 1992 case, Casey v.

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Wade, the court, almost paternalistically, worried about the “distressful life and future” of a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy.

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“I saw for myself that it is very distressful for anyone and especially females to go through that and be gawked and stared at,” he said.

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The survey finds women more likely than men to say they had felt at least one of the distressful emotions in the past week, 71 percent to 56 percent.

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