distress

Pluraldistresses (some meanings)

Formsdistresses, distressing, distressed

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Acute physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, of a notably sharp or intense character.

   The survivors showed signs of severe distress after the rescue.

   Her voice betrayed real distress as she described the accident.

   Similaranguish, torment

   Oppositecomfort, relief, ease

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To cause someone strain, worry, or anxiety.

   The news will distress everyone who knew him.

   Try not to distress the patients with alarming details.

   Similartrouble, torment, afflict, vex, harass

   Oppositecomfort, reassure, soothe, console

   Note

   Behind the verb is a picture of tight quarters. It comes from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier, "to restrain, constrain, put in straits." The verb takes a direct object and often appears in the passive (deeply distressed by the news). Stendhal's Armance sets its limit neatly: a death that will "distress her without plunging her in despair." The word means real pain, short of desolation.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A condition of grave danger or trouble, especially at sea or in the air.

   The coast guard responded to a vessel in distress off the coast.

   An aircraft in distress was given priority to land immediately.

   Similardanger, peril, risk, threat, hazard

   Oppositesafety

   Note

   The sense that lives in a fixed phrase: a ship in distress, signals of distress, fellow-creatures in distress. In Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), guns are fired "for signals of distress, and to obtain help," and Voltaire's Candide (1759) gives shelter to those in distress. Here the word names the danger itself, close to peril or jeopardy, rather than the feeling of anguish that the danger causes.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A source or cause of acute discomfort, suffering, or alarm.

   The long illness was a lasting distress to everyone who cared for her.

   Financial ruin proved the greatest distress of his later years.

   Similarmisery, grief, sorrow, hardship, affliction

   Oppositecomfort, joy, blessing

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To treat a newly made object so that it takes on the look of age or wear.

   Craftsmen distress the leather to give each bag a vintage appearance.

   She wanted to distress the cabinet so it matched her older furniture.

   Similarage, antique, patinate

   Note

   A craftsman's verb, met most often as a past-participle adjective: distressed jeans, distressed furniture. The aim is deliberate wear, which is why age, antique and patinate sit beside it. Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book (1980) jokes that a birdwatcher who does not want to look like a novice should distress new binoculars, the way antique dealers distress new paintings to make them look old.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   An unpleasant state of stress that a person cannot fully adapt to.

   Chronic distress can weaken the immune system over time.

   Therapists help clients manage the distress that builds from constant strain.

   Similarstress, strain

   Oppositeeustress

   Note

   A clinical term with a precise opposite: eustress. Medicine and psychology use the pair to separate stress a person cannot fully adapt to from its benign counterpart. In everyday writing the word means acute suffering or alarm. In a clinical context, chronic distress or psychological distress is a technical description of a state, not simply a strong feeling.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The seizing of a debtor's property, without court proceedings, as a means of compelling payment.

   The landlord resorted to distress when the rent went unpaid for months.

   Under the old rules, distress allowed a creditor to seize livestock for a debt.

   Similardistraint, seizure

   Note

   Self-help in legal form: the creditor takes goods into hand without first going to court. This was typically a landlord owed rent. The law uses the same word for the act and for its object. This sense names the seizing, while the goods seized are also called a distress. The plain verb for the act is distrain, and a creditor is said to resort to distress.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To seize or retain someone's property to enforce payment of a debt; to distrain.

   The lord's bailiff could distress any chattels found on the land for unpaid rent.

   Creditors were once allowed to distress livestock to recover what they were owed.

   Similardistrain

   Note

   A lawyer's equivalent of distrain, carrying the old idea of constraint found in the everyday verb. The power behind it had a hard reputation. James Kent's Commentaries on American Law (1894) calls distress "as anciently used" as oppressive as feudal forfeiture. It allowed a tenant to be "stripped in an instant of all his goods" for arrears of rent.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   The property seized in distraining; goods taken and held to secure payment of a debt.

   The bailiff impounded the cattle and held them as a distress.

   The court ordered the distress returned once the debt was cleared.

   Note

   Here the word turns concrete: not the taking but what is taken. It behaves as a countable noun with an article. Edmund Spenser describes an unpaid man who would "take a distress of goods and cattle." Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England insists that "the distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for." The goods are held as pledge until the debt is met.

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