upsetting

Pluralupsettings

1. 1
   adjective

   Causing distress, worry, or hurt feelings.

   The documentary contained several upsetting scenes of cruelty toward animals.

   It was upsetting to learn how badly the workers had been treated.

   Similardistressing, sad, depressing, saddening, grievous

   Oppositecomforting, reassuring, heartening, soothing

   Note

   The adjective describes the cause, not the feeling. A sight or a piece of news is upsetting, while the person who sees or hears it is upset. It compares with more and most and settles into a few frames: find something upsetting, an upsetting sight, it is upsetting to learn. Saddening sits close to it, but deplorable adds moral blame, which upsetting does not.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of upset.

   The constant delays were upsetting the travelers' carefully made plans.

   Walking along the shelf, the cat was upsetting the ornaments one by one.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every sense of the verb upset, from distressing a person to tipping over a boat or beating a favorite against the odds. Because the verb is usually transitive, a following object marks the participle: the news was upsetting her. Without one, especially after very or more, it has become the adjective meaning "distressing": the news was very upsetting.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of overturning something or throwing it into disorder.

   The upsetting of the canoe spilled all their supplies into the river.

   A violent upsetting of the cart left goods scattered across the road.

   Similaroverturning, capsizing, toppling, upending

   Note

   A noun that covers both the literal spill and the figurative wrecking of an arrangement, as in the upsettings of all their careful plans. It can be counted and pluralized, and it usually takes of to name what was overturned. It shades easily into the gerund of the verb form. The noun reading is clearest with an article or adjective in front: a violent upsetting.

4. 4
   adjectivedialectalScotland

   Thinking too highly of oneself and inclined to act with a boldness or familiarity one has no right to.

   Since he won the scholarship he's been awful upsetting, telling the whole village he's cleverer than the schoolmaster.

   The upsetting nobleman assumed that every door would open at his command.

   Similarpresumptuous, conceited, arrogant, uppity, cocky

   Oppositehumble, modest, unassuming

   Note

   In Scotland the word can describe a person's character rather than an event: someone who rates themselves too highly and presumes on it. Most readers outside Scotland will hear the distressing meaning first. Give the context work to do, such as bragging, airs or liberties taken, so the conceit is unmistakable. Without that help, a phrase like an upsetting nobleman is easily misread.

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