distressing

1. 1
   adjective

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

   The report contained distressing images of the flooded neighborhoods.

   It was deeply distressing to watch the family lose everything they owned.

   Similarupsetting, saddening, depressing, sad, grievous

   Oppositecomforting, reassuring, heartening, uplifting

   Note

   Not only grief qualifies. A wet, windy, smoke-filled engine depot can be distressing, so the word covers bodily discomfort as well as emotional pain. It takes a to-phrase for the person affected (distressing to some readers) and grades freely: very, deeply, more or most distressing. Saddening is narrower and names sorrow alone. Deplorable adds a judgment that something is shameful.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of distress.

   The graphic footage was distressing viewers across the country.

   Worrying about the bills kept distressing him through the night.

   Note

   The verb form keeps every meaning of distress, including two the adjective never carries: seizing goods against a debt, and making something new look old, as a furniture maker does when distressing a pine table. It takes a direct object (distressing viewers), which the adjective meaning "upsetting" cannot, and very distressing is always the adjective. As a gerund it names the process, as in the distressing of the wood.

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