perturbed
Americanadjective
-
feeling or showing great concern or mental or emotional upset.
The heaviness of his step and the perturbed expression on his face told us that the captain was not in the best of moods.
-
greatly disordered or deranged.
He keeps using the same nonsensical phrases and the same perturbed logic, with no sense of the context of the discussion.
verb
Other Word Forms
- perturbedly adverb
- perturbedness noun
- unperturbed adjective
Etymology
Origin of perturbed
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.
I obviously was perturbed by it, but I acted like I wasn’t.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 21, 2026
More curiously, even though U.S. high-yield spreads are at post-1998 lows, few investors seemed to be unduly perturbed here.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 18, 2025
His adversaries think he’ll crumple like yesterday’s broadsheet when they turn him away, and are perturbed to realize he’s more like the human equivalent of tissue hanging onto the heel of a shoe.
From Salon • Sep. 23, 2025
Satan is also perturbed that some rando on Insta keeps commenting about sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s client list.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2025
It soon became clear, however, that these local people were perturbed by my presence, feeling something of a need to show hospitality.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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.
