Distressing, upsetting

Usage examples of hurtful.

More hurtful than agnosticism, because affecting larger masses of people, is the rapid growth of the mercantile spirit during the present century, especially in America.

Sugar was shown to have an especially hurtful action on the durability of inks containing logwood--indeed, on all inks.

He was shocked when Spike made hurtful remarks about their friend and drummer, Doug Kidgell, and mocked and laughed at others of D Battery.

Such a suit, however unjustified, however certain of being thrown out of court, can be hurtful to an innocent writer.

By admitting him, by enlisting under him, by serving under him, some of the most hurtful and injurious men that ever lived have lived after to be the most innocent and the most harmless of men, with their hands washed every day in innocency, and with three golden doves as the scutcheon of their new nature and their Christian character.

He knew Privv of old as a result of some indiscretions by members of his flock and, despite his religious principles, he found it hard not to despise him and other Sheeters of his ilk, who wilfully peddled anything that was hurtful and claimed it as a precious civic trust.

Particular wickedness doth not hurt any other: only unto him it is hurtful, whosoever he be that offends, unto whom in great favour and mercy it is granted, that whensoever he himself shall but first desire it, he may be presently delivered of it.

Privately, Adams knew what a bad start he had made, and to be the butt of jokes, after all he had been through, was hurtful.

Zanna, with unusual delicacy, saw instantly what I meant and, instead of making a hurtful joke out of it, stepped away from Barong, gathering up the dishes and bowls from our funereal meal.

But Cupples--from whose veins alcohol had expelled the blood, whose skull was a Circean cup of hurtful spells--would not delirium follow for him?

Sugar was shown to have an especially hurtful action on the durability of inks containing logwood--indeed, on all inks.

By late morning he was crossing a high, almost flat divide, sunshine making the bright-gleaming snowcap on Pikes Peak almost hurtful to the eye.

He became an advocate of removing regulations on corporations and giving them more leeway, even if this was hurtful to labor and to consumers.

It does not pit section against section, the States severally against the General government, nor the General government against the State governments, and nothing is more hurtful than the attempt to explain it and work it on the principles of British constitutionalism.

In short, your understanding of both the hurtful and the hurting person can be reframed, i.