perturbed
Americanadjective
-
feeling or showing great concern or mental or emotional upset.
The heaviness of his step and the perturbed expression on his face told us that the captain was not in the best of moods.
-
greatly disordered or deranged.
He keeps using the same nonsensical phrases and the same perturbed logic, with no sense of the context of the discussion.
verb
Other Word Forms
- perturbedly adverb
- perturbedness noun
- unperturbed adjective
Etymology
Origin of perturbed
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.
I obviously was perturbed by it, but I acted like I wasn’t.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 21, 2026
More curiously, even though U.S. high-yield spreads are at post-1998 lows, few investors seemed to be unduly perturbed here.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 18, 2025
Dubois, who has 22 wins in 24 fights as a professional, looked perturbed that his rival had stolen the limelight and walked off shaking his head.
From BBC • Jul. 18, 2025
In that defeat, Roberts was particularly perturbed by the club’s quality of at-bats — or lack thereof.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2025
The king cast a perturbed glance in my direction, and I realized he had forgotten his line.
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
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.
