Definition of "distressful" [dis•tress•ful]

• Causing or experiencing distress. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""No, no," he exclaimed in distressful tones, "I cannot have that, but you must leave us."
• "The reformation of abuses and the relief of misery were the great purposes which quickened his every thought, and strained every nerve; and the tear of sensibility started in his eyes on recalling the distressful scenes to which he had been witness, and the spirit of indignation flashed from them at the recollection of baseness and oppression."
• "Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Wednesday called for solutions to the "distressful" problems of food shortages within the country, state television reported."