stressful adj : extremely irritating to the nerves; "nerve-racking noise"; "the stressful days before a war"; "a trying day at the office" [syn: nerve-racking, nerve-wracking, trying]

English

Etymology

From stress + -ful.

Pronunciation

Adjective

1. Irritating; causing stress.

   I have always argued that change becomes stressful and overwhelming only when you've lost any sense of the constancy of your life. You need firm ground to stand on. From there, you can deal with that change. –Richard Nelson Bolles

Related terms

• stress

Translations

adverse, antagonistic, conflicting, contrary, counter, counteractive, detrimental, difficult, draining, exhausting, fatiguesome, fatiguing, grueling, hard, harmful, hostile, in opposition, inimical, killing, miserable, not easy, opposed, opposing, opposite, punishing, rigorous, sinister, straining, tiresome, tiring, toilsome, troublesome, troublous, trying, unfavorable, untoward, weariful, wearing, wearisome, wearying, wretched