distressfully
distressfully adverb: in a distressful way; showing distress.
Adverb
distressfully (comparative more distressfully, superlative most distressfully)
- In a distressful way; showing distress
- [4] And while such an one is ploughing distressfully up the road, it is not hard to understand his resentment, when he perceives cool persons in the meadows by the wayside, lying with a handkerchief over their ears and a glass at their elbow.1877, Robert Louis Stevenson, “An Apology for Idlers”, in Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson
- Oh, I don't understand you at all," Lydia said distressfully.1910, Grace MacGowan Cooke, The Power and the Glory
Examples of distressfully in a sentence
- "Perhaps an hour and a half passed, quietly, except when, once in a way, the dogs would whine distressfully.1912, William Hope Hodgson, Carnacki, The Ghost Finder:
- "I know it is," she sighed, distressfully re-reading it.1923, Elizabeth Bowen, “The Evil that Men do-”, in Encounters, page 171:
Forms of distressfully
| comparative | more distressfully |
|---|---|
| superlative | most distressfully |
Origin of distressfully
From distressful + -ly.
Questions about distressfully
- What does distressfully mean?
- Distressfully means in a distressful way; showing distress.
- How do you use distressfully in a sentence?
- "Perhaps an hour and a half passed, quietly, except when, once in a way, the dogs would whine distressfully.
- What part of speech is distressfully?
- Distressfully is an adverb.
Words near distressfully in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: distressfully (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “distressfully.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/distressfully. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.