Definition of hurtful
:causing injury, detriment, or suffering :damaging
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Examples of hurtful in a Sentence
She can't forgive him for the hurtful things he said.
Their comments were really hurtful to me.
Recent Examples of hurtful from the Web
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Such snide remarks, dirty looks and intimidating messages can be extra hurtful during middle school, a complicated time when adolescents’ bodies and hormones are changing, and when social status at school means everything, Grossman said.
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In particular, when children engage in hurtful behavior toward others, if their parents point out the emotional impact of their actions on the affected people, empathy is more likely to stick.
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But as Facebook disclosed earlier this week, AI is not the be-all-end-all for removing hurtful messages.
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The city's openly gay police chief called the decision divisive and hurtful to LGBT officers.
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The openly gay police chief said the decision was divisive and hurtful to LGBT officers, which the organizers acknowledged.
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Rejected DEAR REJECTED: Feeling rejected, replaced or sad is hurtful.
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Nothing is more hurtful to strategic foresight than a huge victory.
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His family also told him to brush off heckles and hurtful words from his formative years in the sport — and do his talking in the car.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'hurtful.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of hurtful
1526
hurtful Synonyms
Synonyms
adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, damaging, dangerous, deleterious, detrimental, evil, harmful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wickedAntonyms
anodyne, benign, harmless, hurtless, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, safeRelated Words
hostile, inimical, unfriendly; contagious, deadly, infectious, infective, pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous, venomous; insidious, menacing, ominous, sinister, threatening; hazardous, imperiling (or imperilling), jeopardizing, parlous, perilous, risky, unsafe, unsound; nasty, noisome, unhealthful, unhealthy, unwholesome; destructive, fatal, killer, lethal, malignant, ruinousNear Antonyms
advantageous, beneficial, useful; favorable, good, propitious; curative, healthful, healthy, helpful, palliative, remedial, salubrious, salutary, wholesome; secure, sound; benignant; noncorrosive, nondestructive, nonfatal, noninfectious, nonlethal, nonpoisonous, nonpolluting, nontoxic, nonvenomousHURTFUL Defined for English Language Learners
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for hurtful Spanish Central: Translation of hurtful Nglish: Translation of hurtful for Spanish speakers
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