distressful

English

Etymology

From distress +‎ -ful.

Adjective

distressful (comparative more distressful, superlative most distressful)

  1. Causing or feeling distress, anxiety, or strain; distressing.
    • 1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society. A Poem. […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 21:
      There, vvhile above the giddy tempeſt flies, / And all around diſtreſsful yells ariſe, / The penſive exile, bending vvith his vvoe, / To ſtop too fearful, and too faint to go.
    • 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, On the Death of John Adams, page 191:
      Once more, that fulness of prophetic joy,
      With which this unborn Jubilee he mark'd
      Through the long vista of distressful years,
      While the dark war-clouds gathering at his feet
      Involved the scene.

Alternative forms
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