distraught
Americanadjective
-
distracted; deeply agitated.
-
mentally deranged; crazed.
adjective
-
distracted or agitated
-
rare mad
Other Word Forms
- distraughtly adverb
- overdistraught adjective
- undistraught adjective
Etymology
Origin of distraught
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English variant of obsolete distract “distracted,” by association with straught, old past participle of stretch; see distract
Explanation
If you are upset, you are distraught. If you don't want to explain why you are pulling your hair out, just utter "Leave me alone; I'm distraught." It'll work. While distraught may sound like an old Germanic past participle, it is actually an alteration of distract from the Latin distrahere "to draw in different directions." If you are distraught, you are so upset that it's hard to think straight, hence your mind is "drawn in different directions."
Vocabulary lists containing distraught
The Great Gatsby
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Or should she support a distraught mother’s efforts to save her daughter?
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
The troubles reached a crescendo during the live finale when a distraught Tran revealed that the man she had chosen as her husband-to-be, Devin Strader, had ended their engagement a month before the broadcast.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026
The deaths of her grandparents in quick succession left her so distraught — they had raised her — that she never finished her dissertation.
From Salon • Mar. 17, 2026
Poursaid, still distraught, said that the family is now leaving the area after their neighbours, fearing further strikes, were reluctant to rent to them.
From Barron's • Mar. 10, 2026
“They knew, they knew, but they knew,” he said, distraught.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
