adjective

• Causing anxiety, sorrow or pain; upsetting.

  ‘some very distressing news’

  More example sentences

  • ‘She had a good point about speaking up in a distressing situation.’
  • ‘The remainder of their stay passed without distressing incidents.’
  • ‘The decisive No vote among the younger generation was distressing.’
  • ‘Each snippet of bad news was distressing for Philipp.’
  • ‘Children can buy alcohol in York with distressing ease.’
  • ‘Combat is where the most distressing gameplay fault emerges.’
  • ‘The courageous youngster also suffers from distressing infections caused by saliva getting into his lungs.’
  • ‘In fact, the most distressing visuals are the sad scenes of refugees who fled the bombing of Kosovo.’
  • ‘His most distressing experience was the Valley Parade fire.’
  • ‘Perhaps most distressing are the injuries inflicted on our definitively non-renewable resource: archaeology.’
  • ‘This has been very distressing for him.’
  • ‘Mistakes like that shouldn't happen at such a distressing time.’
  • ‘However, I still cannot understand or rationalise the distressing sequence of events that followed his death.’
  • ‘It was distressing how quickly her body reacted to Levi.’
  • ‘I found out the most distressing thing today.’
  • ‘We have a large number of elderly people in the area and dementia is very distressing.’
  • ‘Sutton arrived as damaged goods after a distressing season at Chelsea.’
  • ‘Most patients report recurrence of cancer as more distressing than receiving the initial diagnosis.’
  • ‘One of the best methods of combating this distressing pattern may be through toll pricing.’
  • ‘It has been distressing to me that information about spirulina has been largely overlooked.’

  Synonyms

  upsetting, worrying, affecting, painful, traumatic, agonizing, harrowing, tormenting

  View synonyms