How to Use hurtful in a Sentence

hurtful

adjective

• She can't forgive him for the hurtful things he said.
• Their comments were really hurtful to me.
• Now, did some of the hurtful things that people said get to me?
  — Time Staff, Time, 22 May 2017
• No one called me, which was so strange, and that was hurtful.
  — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 10 Jan. 2025
• Evans said the church has been a hurtful and awful place for some.
  — Karen Pilarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 June 2019
• The sh*t that happened tonight to me at the awards today was hurtful.
  — Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 2 July 2024
• The fact that the Steelers lost to their AFC nemeses was hurtful enough in the short term.
  — Peter King, SI.com, 20 Dec. 2017
• Well, that ended up being hurtful for both the fans and the team.
  — Matt Young, Chron, 4 Mar. 2021
• To have someone pull the rug out was just too hurtful and too much to move on from.
  — Vulture, 31 Jan. 2024
• The use of the term ‘mentally ill’ was wrong & hurtful.
  — Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2019
• My words were hurtful and hateful and have no place in this world.
  — Jon Hale, The Courier-Journal, 5 Mar. 2020
• The words were hurtful and made my daughter cry, which woke up the mama bear in me.
  — Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 15 Apr. 2022
• At the end of the day, losing a top-10 player like Myles is hurtful to a football team.
  — cleveland, 22 Dec. 2019
• Some of the things Kanye is accusing her of are hurtful.
  — Georgia Slater, PEOPLE.com, 9 Feb. 2022
• Friends warn her not to take the bait, but Sam can’t seem to pull herself away from the hurtful comments.
  — Pilot Viruet, The Verge, 4 May 2018
• There have been trolls who’ve made up stories and said hurtful things about the survivors of the shooting.
  — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 22 Mar. 2018
• But a lot of it isn’t, and these videos can turn into hurtful jabs at creators.
  — Julia Alexander, The Verge, 5 Aug. 2019
• Nichols said the recording of the video by an ESPN colleague was hurtful.
  — New York Times, 4 July 2021
• Heather went on to point out all the hurtful things the women have said about one another.
  — Liza Esquibias, People.com, 16 Jan. 2025
• Things were said during the divorce that were very hurtful.
  — Anonymous, Woman's Day, 7 July 2016
• Harsh criticism can be hurtful, even to a fierce heart like yours.
  — Tarot Astrologers, chicagotribune.com, 22 Aug. 2020
• Over the course of the day, I was told that this was especially hurtful coming from me.
  — Quinn Norton, The Atlantic, 27 Feb. 2018
• At the time of the move-out, the student wrote me a very hurtful letter, telling me about how adults should act and how my children were spoiled.
  — Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 5 July 2023
• These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.
  — J.d. Crowe | [e-mail], al, 4 Mar. 2021
• Sometimes things are said that are hurtful — people tend to say stupid things.
  — Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2019
• The endowed lecturer found this hurtful, but less and less so as time went on.
  — Jarrett Earnest, The New York Review of Books, 8 June 2022
• That makes the romance between Alexis and her ex all that more hurtful.
  — Stephanie Wenger, Peoplemag, 11 Jan. 2024
• Bono: Some people say that the lifeblood of U2 is concerts, not our albums — which is very hurtful.
  — Rob Tannenbaum, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2023
• These allegations are false and incredibly hurtful to both me and, more importantly, my family.
  — Dan Perry, Newsweek, 31 Jan. 2025
• Engaging in playful teasing or inside jokes that are fun—but not hurtful— can help break the ice and foster intimacy without the heaviness that sometimes comes with serious conversations.
  — Mark Travers, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025

Last Updated: 15 Mar 2025