| 释义 |
diˈstressful, a.
[f. distress n. + -ful.]
Full of or attended with distress. (A literary and chiefly poetical word; not colloquial.)
1. Fraught with, causing, or involving distress; distressing; painful.
1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iv. 126 To ease your Countrie of distressefull Warre. 1604― Oth. i. iii. 157 Of some distressefull stroke That my youth suffer'd. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 78 ⁋5 What is above all distressful and alarming, the final sentence. 1820Scoresby Acc. Arctic Reg. II. 207 Night, a tempestuous sea, and crowded ice, must probably produce as high a degree of horror in the mind of the navigator, who is..subjected to their distressful influence, as any. 1860J. P. Kennedy Horse Shoe R. xix. 228 Subjects of distressful uncertainty.
†b. Attended with distress, gained by severe toil. Obs. rare.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. i. 287 Who with a body fill'd, and vacant mind, Gets him to rest, cram'd with distressefull bread.
2. Of persons, their actions, state, etc.: Full of distress; marked by or indicating distress or suffering; in great distress, sorely distressed.
1601Munday, etc. Downfall Earl of Huntington I. iv b, Looke if you see not a distresseful man, That to himselfe intendeth violence. 1715–20Pope Iliad xvii. 293 Wide The field re-echo'd the distressful sound. 1781Cowper Conversation 116 Fix on the waistcoat a distressful stare. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 969 At a safe distance, both distressful watch. 1883Fortn. Rev. June 873 The most distressful districts lie in the west. |