adjective

• Causing distress to someone's feelings.

  ‘his hurtful remarks’

  More example sentences

  • ‘And what company in their right mind would touch such a nasty, intrusive, hurtful idea?’
  • ‘She always found the most cruel, shaming and hurtful way possible to attack.’
  • ‘I guess that is something that can be a bit hurtful or upsetting for me to ponder.’
  • ‘However, when we did next meet up, we had a really nasty row and said a lot of hurtful things about each other.’
  • ‘I can be impervious to some of the hurtful things in the press.’
  • ‘I know how hurtful it is when kids at school make fun of you and make you cry.’
  • ‘My heart is so full of things to say but most of them are hurtful and angry.’
  • ‘Those who attack political correctness would much rather be free to say any old hurtful and rancid thing, just as they always used to.’
  • ‘That kind of racism is just as hurtful as the intentional sort.’
  • ‘A reply would not have been adequate, it would have been hurtful, and it was too late.’
  • ‘This type of hostility can range from hurtful slander to physical attacks.’
  • ‘At the very least, your friend owes it to you to tell you why she's saying such hurtful things.’
  • ‘There can only be two explanations for this unbelievably hurtful statement.’
  • ‘At this point he paused and looked sadly into the distance as if recalling every hurtful moment of the evening.’
  • ‘I am trying to figure out the least hurtful way for both of us to explain.’
  • ‘Hard men sometimes have soft centres and there's nothing more hurtful than to be taken for granted.’
  • ‘He said it must have been horrendously hurtful for the family to agree to the publication of the pictures.’
  • ‘We did not see it as an urgency or as being hurtful or harmful to anyone.’
  • ‘It's getting hurtful for people and has become cruelty for the sake of TV.’
  • ‘It was very hurtful because he was someone I genuinely cared for and was trying to help and he had punched me with no provocation.’

  Synonyms

  upsetting, distressing, wounding, painful

  View synonyms