disturbed

[dih-sturbd]

adjective

1. marked by symptoms of mental illness.

   a disturbed personality.

2. agitated or distressed; disrupted.

   disturbed seas; a disturbed situation.

noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. Usually the disturbed persons who exhibit symptoms of neurosis or psychosis.

disturbed

/ dɪˈstɜːbd /

adjective

1. psychiatry emotionally upset, troubled, or maladjusted

Other Word Forms

• undisturbed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of disturbed¹

First recorded in 1585–95; disturb + -ed ²

Example Sentences

Churchill entertained the guests with his description of the trading floor during the crash, which he later described as looking like a “disturbed ant heap.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The prospect of an ICE recruitment fair nearby also disturbed him.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Sethe, who has spent much of her life in slavery, is disturbed by the ghost of the baby she killed to spare the child from slavery.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Its slow rotation means that it is more easily disturbed by collisions, which can knock the asteroid into a chaotic tumble.

Read more on Science Daily

But it was not a predator that had disturbed the quiet of their off-grid holiday: it was a flurry of text messages bearing the news that Dr Ramsdell had won the Nobel Prize for medicine.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• agitated 
• troubled www.thesaurus.com