stressed-out
Americanadjective
Usage
What does stressed-out mean? Stressed-out means experiencing a lot of emotional stress. The adjective stressed can mean the same thing. Both terms often imply that the level of stress is intense or higher than usual—that stress has built up and is becoming hard to deal with. The phrasal verb stress out can mean to experience stress, as in Don’t stress out about the meeting—it’s not a big deal. It can also mean to cause someone to experience stress, as in You’re really stressing me out. The term stressed-out comes from the past tense of this sense: someone who is stressed-out has been stressed out by someone or something (or, as is often the case, by a combination of different factors). Stressed-out is commonly spelled without a hyphen, as stressed out. Example: During the week of final exams, the library is filled with stressed-out students frantically trying to study.
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 don’t think I would have been able to do 500 acquisitions or raise over $50 billion if I had been super stressed out and not thinking clearly.
From MarketWatch • May 6, 2026
The driver told the BBC he had "done all the right things" but was "very stressed out".
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
The punchlines are there, such as a beat after one meltdown where Jackson admits he’s getting really stressed out and Grace coolly replies, “About what?”
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 5, 2025
“If both parents are working and are stressed out, trying to put your mind to having this battle with this persistent middle-schooler is really hard.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 8, 2024
“Juniper,” Annabeth said, “Grover would never even look at another tree. He’s just stressed out about his searcher’s license.”
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
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.
