gut-wrenching

gut-wrenching

Agonizing; extremely distressing, unpleasant, or emotionally disturbing; having a severe effect on one's feelings. What a gut-wrenching loss for the young athlete, who poured her heart and soul into this match. Kids today are so desensitized that images of violence their grandparents would have found gut-wrenching now barely even register a response.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • wrench
  • put (some time) in on (something)
  • put an amount of time in on
  • put in (some time) on (something)
  • hell on
  • hell on (someone or something)
  • enough to make the angels weep
  • weep
  • see the funny side (of something)
  • see the funny side of something
References in periodicals archive
"We had more people in the box today than ever before, more crosses going in and it's a real gut-wrenching feeling that we've only come away with only one point after another fantastic performance.
To not be able to hit anywhere near that against Mayo at the weekend was the gut-wrenching thing.
Stacey Solomon admits to feeling 'gut-wrenching mum guilt' after welcoming baby Rex
Amandla Stenberg delivers a gut-wrenching lead performance as Starr Carter who zigzags uncomfortably between worlds of white privilege and black indignation.
Possibly the most exciting, uplifting, gut-wrenching & hiptwitching band in the Northern Hemisphere.
A mix of historical fact and dramatic licence, Mulligan bares her soul with a gut-wrenching performance.
I was in the same situation years ago and it was gut-wrenching but I agreed our seven-year-old daughter could be a bridesmaid if she wanted to - and she did.
I write this letter with quite a heavy heart, as I recently came across a news report which provided me with a gut-wrenching feeling all in all.
Plain and simple, that was the message coming from the Blackhawks one day after their gut-wrenching 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
Summary: To have workplace conduct questioned was gut-wrenching, TV show host says
"Unwilling to give up on his brother, Stefan (Paul Wesley) is forced to make a gut-wrenching decision that threatens to change their relationship forever."
A furious Redknapp snapped when quizzed on Morocco forward Taarabt's injury status after QPR's gut-wrenching 3-2 home defeat to Liverpool.
Gut-wrenching images show a father hugging two little girls and saying: "For god's sake tell me what I'll do after now?
If you want gut-wrenching, you can likely go no lower than Australia's feedtime, whose heyday was in the mid- to late-1980s.
But some weeks, the deaths are more gut-wrenching than others, and the latest is offbeat to say the least.