unnerving

[uhn-nur-ving]

adjective

1. depriving a person of courage, strength, determination, or confidence; disconcerting.

   There's nothing easy about job hunting, but if asked to pinpoint the most unnerving part of the process, many would say it's interviewing.

Other Word Forms

• unnervingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of unnerving¹

unnerv(e) ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Rivals sometimes embrace unorthodox approaches, Popple says, conducting hourslong interview sessions that can include questions aimed at unnerving candidates—What was your kindergarten report card like?

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“Dissociative” is a decent descriptor for Isella’s music, too — disorienting, unnerving, drawing out emotions you might not understand.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It was unnerving to be so out of touch.

Read more on Literature

The warning resurfaced on social media this week, going viral as users grappled with the unnerving reality of the Times’ editorial foresight.

Read more on Salon

It is gruesome, disturbing, and – save for the standard creative license taken in its scripts – unnervingly precise in re-creating Dahmer’s history and the legend that has arisen around him.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• abhorrent 
• appalling 
• atrocious 
• awesome 
• awful 
• dangerous 
• dire 
• disastrous 
• disturbing 
• dreadful 
• frightful 
• ghastly 
• gruesome 
• harrowing 
• hideous 
• horrendous 
• horrid 
• horrifying 
• serious 
• severe