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

• distressfull (obsolete)