How to Use gut-wrenching in a Sentence

gut-wrenching

adjective
  • The past week has been gut-wrenching for our town, like all the worst parts of the Bible at once.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 14 Jan. 2025
  • Mixed drinks were a way of masking the gut-wrenching taste.
    — David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 23 July 2023
  • And so that was probably one of the more gut-wrenching cuts.
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 June 2023
  • The irony of the trade is that Cortes and Williams surrendered the two most gut-wrenching home runs of the 2024 postseason.
    — Daniel R. Epstein, Forbes.com, 30 Mar. 2025
  • For the second straight year, Troy suffered a gut-wrenching loss in Week 3.
    — Creg Stephenson | Cstephenson@al.com, al, 16 Sep. 2023
  • And the gun sellers knew or should have known that these guns would lead to gut-wrenching murder.
    — Rayna Reid Rayford, Essence, 18 July 2023
  • The gut-wrenching feeling, the weight on his chest, and the lack of desire for anything became too much to bear.
    — Anna Guaracao, BostonGlobe.com, 24 Aug. 2023
  • After a gut-wrenching breakup, one of the biggest questions you might be left with is, Why?
    — Jenna Ryu, SELF, 23 Sep. 2024
  • All of them have ended with gut-wrenching shots in the final eight seconds.
    — Sam Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 17 Mar. 2025
  • Democrats, for their part, are consumed by a gut-wrenching hope that Mr. Trump won’t be the nominee.
    — Ken Bensinger, New York Times, 19 Jan. 2024
  • This gut-wrenching loss came two nights after the Cougars fashioned a wild comeback of their own, from 14 down against Duke.
    — Eddie Pells, Baltimore Sun, 7 Apr. 2025
  • Those that know her say those losses, combined with the turmoil at 23andMe, must be gut-wrenching.
    — Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 17 Oct. 2024
  • That diary, along with lurid rape and torture videos, proved a gut-wrenching record of Lake and Ng's cruelty.
    — Devan Stuart Lesley, Peoplemag, 17 Feb. 2023
  • Anaya and her husband were in a gut-wrenching position -- the fetus' heart was still beating, but couldn't be saved.
    — Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 14 Dec. 2023
  • Here are 10 thoughts after the latest gut-wrenching defeat.
    — Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 18 Nov. 2024
  • Parry Punch posted this sweet but gut-wrenching photo of Ngannou and his son Kobe.
    — Brian Mazique, Forbes, 19 Oct. 2024
  • Hart’s brush against Coby White’s afro on a desperate three-point attempt sent White to the line for three free throws, handing the Knicks a gut-wrenching one-point loss.
    — Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 19 Nov. 2024
  • In the gut-wrenching wild-card playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals two seasons ago, backup Tyler Huntley was sacked twice and hit five times.
    — Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun, 24 Apr. 2024
  • Instead, the Beavers suffered a pair of gut-wrenching defeats, succumbing to back-to-back rallies by the Sun Devils.
    — Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 24 Apr. 2023
  • Se7en's gut-wrenching plot twist will leave viewers with goosebumps, but here's where the real chills crawl up the spine: Denzel Washington passed on the part of David Mills.
    — EW.com, 16 Oct. 2023
  • Coming off a gut-wrenching extra-inning loss in Game 3, the Yankees came out swinging.
    — Homero De La Fuente, CNN, 19 Oct. 2024
  • Mom’s gut-wrenching message to parents after teenage son dies in twin brother’s arms.
    — FOXNews.com, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Fuller includes many gut-wrenching passages like the one above throughout the book, making his arguments sink in with the reader.
    — Marybeth Gasman, Forbes, 5 Sep. 2024
  • How is this show so funny and so intense and so emotionally gut-wrenching all at once?
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
  • In it, real-life screams of agony recorded by a detainee who smuggled a phone into the prison pierce through a montage of gut-wrenching images.
    — María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post, 22 Sep. 2023
  • Having to sit there and watch Devin and Tori win and watch our final in our fairy-tale season go up in smoke was probably one of the most gut-wrenching moments for me on The Challenge.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 16 Feb. 2023
  • So Taylor-Joy would jump back into another gut-wrenching scene with her jaw tightly clenched.
    — Ramin Setoodeh, Variety, 7 May 2024
  • Beloved characters are not immune to severe, gut-wrenching harm.
    — Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2023
  • In the last verse, Melle tells a gut-wrenching story about a young man who drops out of school, ends up in jail and dies by suicide after getting repeatedly raped behind bars.
    — Deena Zaru, ABC News, 19 June 2023
  • Zuri went into childbirth on Sunday and was in labor for more than 24 hours which were exciting yet gut-wrenching for staff at the zoo, Addelson said.
    — Laura Daniella Sepulveda, The Arizona Republic, 11 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gut-wrenching.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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