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.
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Harsh criticism can be hurtful, even to a fierce heart like yours.
    Tarot Astrologers, chicagotribune.com, 22 Aug. 2020
  • 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 | Jdcrowe@al.com, 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
  • A lot of the things though are f---ing crazy and hilarious and also very hurtful.
    Daniela Avila, Peoplemag, 18 Aug. 2023
  • She’s a textbook narcissist who has said many very hurtful things and has a new man and new life.
    Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 2 Sep. 2020
  • Some of the language from these leaders has been disturbing to them, and hurtful.
    Renata Brito, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Mar. 2022
  • To call this slogan ‘hurtful’ is to be against the end of occupation.
    Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Nov. 2023
  • Having that taken away from me at the last minute was pretty hurtful.
    Dan Wiederer, chicagotribune.com, 8 Jan. 2022
  • Then there were the people who were trying to take away their pain, who had the kindest hearts, but who said things that were so hurtful.
    The Indianapolis Star, 17 Nov. 2022
  • However, his five-foot-eleven-inch stature could prove hurtful to his draft stock.
    Stephen Wagner, Dallas News, 13 Jan. 2021
  • Gaslighters often say this to get away with hurtful comments.
    Erica Sweeney, Good Housekeeping, 22 Apr. 2022
  • Credit cards can cost extra The increase in credit card usage and businesses who raise all prices to cover credit card fees is hurtful to all consumers, said Stanley.
    Betty Lin-Fisher, USA TODAY, 6 Sep. 2024
  • Joseph, whose family immigrated from Haiti on a boat in 1991, called Trump's comments embarrassing and hurtful.
    Sean Neumann, Peoplemag, 13 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hurtful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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