Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Causing pain or suffering, especially of a psychological nature.
  • adjective Damaging or harmful.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Tending to hurt or impair; injurious; mischievous; causing harm or damage.
  • Synonyms Disadvantageous, detrimental, harmful, prejudicial, deleterious, baneful, nnwholesome, pernicious, noxious, destructive.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Tending to impair or damage; injurious; mischievous; occasioning loss or injury.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Tending to impair or damage; injurious; mischievous; occasioning loss or injury.
  • adjective Tending to hurt someone's feelings; insulting.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective causing hurt
  • adjective harmful to living things

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hurt +‎ -ful

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Examples

  • Jackson did apologize for what he called his hurtful words.

    CNN Transcript Jul 17, 2008 2008

  • SNOW: But that promise for a new kind of politics say some Indian American groups clashes with what they call hurtful stereotyping.

    CNN Transcript Jun 19, 2007 2007

  • SNOW: But that promise for a new kind of politics, say some Indian-American groups, clashes with what they call hurtful stereotyping, especially on the issue of outsourcing.

    CNN Transcript Jun 19, 2007 2007

  • I don't mean to change the debate; you didn't mean it that way, and certainly you have decades of wisdom and knowledge to which I am not privy, but I have had relatives in trailers and you likely haven't (or you would have found the term hurtful), and certainly if it had been another slur it would have that have no place in current usage, and when I hear that term, I think of it literally ...

    tracy enid flick 2008

  • My cousin's marriage and long term commitment to his partner show more "defense of marriage" and more demonstration of enduring and pure love than my four tawdry debacles of drunken cruelty, faithless and indulgent recklessness which all resulted in hurtful, and messy divorces.

    California Supreme Court Hears Arguments 2009

  • My cousin's marriage and long term commitment to his partner show more "defense of marriage" and more demonstration of enduring and pure love than my four tawdry debacles of drunken cruelty, faithless and indulgent recklessness which all resulted in hurtful, and messy divorces.

    Archive 2009-03-01 2009

  • When you have something to communicate and you couch it in hurtful ways, your message gets lost in the hurt feelings.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Criminal Conviction in England for Leaving Anti-Religious Leaflets in Airport Prayer Room 2010

  • Ronald Li as good as his son got held regulating their Stock Exchange positions in hurtful income creation offenses, as good as were to be brought to trial. you dont know how it turned out.

    Archive 2009-12-01 admin 2009

  • Ronald Li as good as his son got held regulating their Stock Exchange positions in hurtful income creation offenses, as good as were to be brought to trial. you dont know how it turned out.

    Batin Itam: The Li Blood Line admin 2009

  • Anyway, as I posted in the comments, I think one of the reasons the things that were said were so hurtful is that being the adoptive parent is a very tenuous place to be.

    Day in the Life of an Idiot lyda222 2008

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