distressed

adjective

dis·​tressed di-ˈstrest 

: of, relating to, or experiencing economic decline or difficulty

federal grants for distressed cities

Examples of distressed in a Sentence

She felt emotionally and physically distressed.

The government provided funds to the economically distressed city.

Donations were given to financially distressed families.

Recent Examples on the Web

The court was briefly recessed, and the judge ordered a medical evaluation after Pino appeared distressed and began breathing heavily. —Cbs Miami Team, CBS News, 8 June 2026

Mamdani announced an exemption allowing some distressed landlords receiving city subsidies to raise rents on vacant units, but the majority of regulated apartments in the city would not qualify. —Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Money, 4 June 2026

Many struggling teenagers do not look obviously distressed from the outside. —Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 4 June 2026

England did not make it anyway (not helped by Gazza being too distressed to take a penalty in the shootout) but a national hero was born. —Tim Spiers, New York Times, 3 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1613, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for distressed

• acquiesced
• coalesced
• dispossessed
• manifest
• overdressed
• overstressed
• prepossessed
• reassessed
• reinvest
• repossessed
• unaddressed
• uncompressed