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distress

noun
/dɪˈstɹɛs/

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.

  1. derived from destrece
  2. inherited from distresse
  3. derived from distringō
  4. derived from destrecier
  5. inherited from distressen

Definitions

  1. Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute…

    Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature.

    • 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.

  2. A cause of such discomfort.

  3. Serious danger.

    • 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.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.

    2. A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.

    3. The thing taken by distraining

      The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.

      • 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.

    4. To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

      • 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.

    5. To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt

      To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.

      • 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.

    6. To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age.

      • 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.

The neighborhood

Derived

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

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at distress. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01distress02suffering03pain04annoying05troublesome06anxiety07distressing08distressful

A definitional loop anchored at distress. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at distress

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA