confronting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of confront.

   The manager kept confronting each issue as soon as it surfaced.

   Confronting an angry customer is rarely anyone's favorite task.

   Note

   The verb form carries every sense of confront, and most of them take a direct object: confronting a rival, confronting a problem. Two constructions are worth knowing. Confronting someone with something brings them face to face with it. Confronting one thing with another can mean setting them side by side to compare them. Used without an object, it simply means engaging in confrontation.

   She kept confronting him with the receipts until he admitted it.

   Confronting the draft with the original revealed dozens of silent changes.

2. 2
   adjective

   Causing distress or emotional discomfort; upsetting to witness or experience.

   Aid workers found the conditions in the camp deeply confronting.

   The memoir's most confronting chapters deal with her years of addiction.

   Similardistressing, disturbing, upsetting, harrowing, unsettling

   Oppositecomforting, reassuring, soothing

   Note

   Here the participle has hardened into a true adjective, and its comparison forms show it: a scene can be more confronting than another, or the most confronting moment in a film. That gives a quick test. If more or very fits and no object follows (a very confronting documentary), it is this adjective. If an object follows (confronting the truth), it is the verb form.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2