distress
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: human-sciences
law
medicine
psychology
sciences
Etymology: The verb is from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier (“to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress”); compare French détresse. Ultimately from Medieval Latin as if *districtiō, an assumed frequentative form of Latin distringō (“to pull asunder, stretch out”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringō (“to draw tight, strain”).
The noun is from Middle English distresse, from Old French destrece, ultimately also from Latin distringō.
Inflected forms:
form: distresses
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: distresses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: distressing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: distressed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: distressed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: To heighten his distress, he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connexions (with that unhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she never shall be able to surmount.
At any other time Jessamy would have laughed at the expressions that chased each other over his freckled face: crossness left over from his struggle with the baby; incredulity; distress; and finally delight.
gloss: A cause of such discomfort.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Serious danger.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help.
At length they perceived a little cottage; two persons in the decline of life dwelt in this desert, who were always ready to give every assistance in their power to their fellow-creatures in distress.
gloss: An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.
The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.
gloss: To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
pos: verb
examples: She respects me, no doubt, but has no longer any passionate feeling for me, and my death will distress her without plunging her in despair.
gloss: To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
pos: verb
examples: This power of distress, as anciently used, became as oppressive as the feudal forfeiture. It was as hard for the tenant to be stripped in an instant of all his goods, for arrears of rent, as to be turned out of the possession of his farm.
gloss: To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age.
pos: verb
examples: a pair of distressed jeans
She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.
If you don't want to be considered a dude you should distress your binoculars in the way that antique dealers distress new paintings to make them look old.
Synonyms: extremity
anguish
rend
difficulty
distress
grief
hardship
pain
smart
torment
torture
trouble
Antonyms: calmness
pleasure
Related words: distrain
district
offend
vex
Derived words: abuse of distress
damsel in distress
distressee
distresser
distressful
distressless
distress merchandise
distress purchase
distress sale
distress signal
infant respiratory distress syndrome
moral distress
postdistress
predistress
respiratory distress
undistress
Translations: