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

Part of the impetus for the scrutiny is the federal grand jury investigation into tens of millions of dollars that have been distributed among Hartford nonprofits, including some in the city’s economically distressed North End. —Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 25 Feb. 2026

Solivan said the city intends to return to the City Council later this year to address two other distressed assets and preserve their extremely low-income units. —Devan Patel, Mercury News, 25 Feb. 2026

Styles spanned distressed jeans, long jean shorts and distressed black denim skirts. —Angela Velasquez, Sourcing Journal, 24 Feb. 2026

Isaias Cervantes, 25, had become distressed about a shopping trip and started pushing his mother, his family’s attorney said at the time. —Los Angeles Times, 24 Feb. 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