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Distress   /dɪstrˈɛs/   Listen
noun
Distress  n.  
1.
Extreme pain or suffering; anguish of body or mind; as, to suffer distress from the gout, or from the loss of friends. "Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress."
2.
That which occasions suffering; painful situation; misfortune; affliction; misery. "Affliction's sons are brothers in distress."
3.
A state of danger or necessity; as, a ship in distress, from leaking, loss of spars, want of provisions or water, etc.
4.
(Law)
(a)
The act of distraining; the taking of a personal chattel out of the possession of a wrongdoer, by way of pledge for redress of an injury, or for the performance of a duty, as for nonpayment of rent or taxes, or for injury done by cattle, etc.
(b)
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."
Abuse of distress. (Law) See under Abuse.
Synonyms: Affliction; suffering; pain; agony; misery; torment; anguish; grief; sorrow; calamity; misfortune; trouble; adversity. See Affliction.


verb
Distress  v. t.  (past & past part. distressed; pres. part. distressing)  
1.
To cause pain or anguish to; to pain; to oppress with calamity; to afflict; to harass; to make miserable. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed."
2.
To compel by pain or suffering. "Men who can neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of duty."
3.
(Law) To seize for debt; to distrain.
Synonyms: To pain; grieve; harass; trouble; perplex; afflict; worry; annoy.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Distress" Quotes from Famous Books



... the entrance of the Curate. "As long as we could imagine that Frank was to succeed to the Rectory, the thing looked comparatively easy. I beg your pardon, Gerald. Of course, you know how grieved I am—in short, that we all feel the deepest distress and vexation; but, to be sure, since you have given it up, somebody must succeed you—there can be ...
— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant
... the law?" the colored man demanded in distress. The clerk nodded, and the applicant thought hard for ...
— Jokes For All Occasions - Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers • Anonymous
... marriage, there is a violence of distress surpassing all other sufferings in the world. A woman's whole soul depends upon the conjugal tie. To struggle against fate alone, to journey to the grave without a friend to support you or to regret you, is an isolation ...
— Famous Affinities of History, Vol 1-4, Complete - The Romance of Devotion • Lyndon Orr
... protean nightmare which, in one form or another of bigotry and oppression, has ridden that unfortunate country up to a very recent time, when civil war has again interfered with apparently little prospect of any better result. My distress at receiving such unexpected news from my brother was aggravated by his forbidding me to write to him or speak of his plans and proceedings to any one. This concealment, which would have been both difficult and repugnant to me, was rendered impossible ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble
... noble efforts to keep alive God's words in the hearts of the people; but in the writings of the prophets themselves we may read the actual messages which God's messengers proclaimed in order to stir up their hearers in times of national distress or heart-backsliding. ...
— The Bible in its Making - The most Wonderful Book in the World • Mildred Duff


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