uncomfortable

/ʌn'kʌmfətəbl/

Thân thiện

The child feels uncomfortable in the stiff wooden chair.

Definition

Adjective 1. Causing or experiencing physical unease or mild pain: Describes something that creates bodily discomfort or a person's sensation of not being physically at ease. 2. Causing or experiencing mental unease, awkwardness, or anxiety: Describes a situation, truth, or feeling that is emotionally distressing, embarrassing, or socially awkward.

Examples

• The wooden bench was very uncomfortable to sit on for a long time.
• She felt uncomfortable in the formal dress; it was too tight.
• There was an uncomfortable silence after he asked the difficult question.
• He had to tell his friend the uncomfortable truth about the project's failure.
• The intense scrutiny from the interview panel made her feel uncomfortable.

Advanced Usage

• To be uncomfortable with something/someone: To feel uneasy, disapproving, or anxious about a situation, idea, or person.
  • Many citizens are uncomfortable with the new surveillance laws.
• To make someone uncomfortable: To cause someone to feel awkward, embarrassed, or physically ill-at-ease.
  • His persistent personal questions made everyone at the table uncomfortable.

Variants and Related Words

• Uncomfortably (adverb): In a manner that causes discomfort.
  • The room was uncomfortably hot.
• Comfortable (adjective): The direct antonym, meaning providing or experiencing physical ease and relaxation, or free from stress or anxiety.
• Discomfort (noun): A feeling of mild physical pain or mental unease.

Synonyms

• Physically: Awkward, cramped, painful, hard.
• Mentally/Socially: Awkward, uneasy, embarrassed, anxious, distressing, disquieting.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• An uncomfortable truth: A fact or reality that is unpleasant or difficult to accept but must be acknowledged.
  • The report addressed the uncomfortable truth about the company's environmental impact.
• Squirm/unsettled in one's seat: A physical manifestation of feeling uncomfortable, often used idiomatically to describe mental unease.
  • The accusatory tone of the meeting had people squirming in their seats.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. providing or experiencing physical discomfort
   • an uncomfortable chair
   • an uncomfortable day in the hot sun
2. conducive to or feeling mental discomfort
   • this kind of life can prove disruptive and uncomfortable
   • the uncomfortable truth
   • grew uncomfortable beneath his appraising eye
   • an uncomfortable way of surprising me just when I felt surest
   • the teacher's presence at the conference made the child very uncomfortable