DISTRESS • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Distress

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/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.

See images of 'Distress'

Etymology of 'Distress'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Distress" Quotes from Famous Books

... the meteorology of the Far East; but precisely similar modes of procuring rain have been resorted to in Christian Europe within our own lifetime. By the end of April 1893 there was great distress in Sicily for lack of water. The drought had lasted six months. Every day the sun rose and set in a sky of cloudless blue. The gardens of the Conca d'Oro, which surround Palermo with a magnificent belt of verdure, were withering. Food was becoming scarce. The people were in great ...

— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... the desert vast, in the wilderness, On the bellowing sea, in the lion's lair, In the midst of battle, and everywhere. In his hand he holds with a father's care The tender hearts of the motherless; The maid and the mother in sore distress He shields with his love and his tenderness; He comforts the widowed—the comfortless, And sweetens her chalice of bitterness; He clothes the naked—the numberless,— His charity covers their nakedness,— And he feeds the famished and fatherless With the hand that feedeth the birds of air. ...

— Legends of the Northwest • Hanford Lennox Gordon

... will send you, pleased most people of good taste here; the boxes were crowded till the sixth night, when the pit and gallery were totally deserted, and it was dropped. Distress, without death, was not sufficient to affect a true British audience, so long accustomed to daggers, racks, and bowls of poison: contrary to Horace's rule, they desire to see Medea murder her children upon the stage. The sentiments ...

— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... with a young man of the name of Morris who is at the same Tutor's. The horse became unmanageable, the two young men were thrown, Morris pitched on his head and was killed on the spot, young Smith was very little hurt, but his state of distress is such that they hardly know what to do ...

— The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope v. I. • A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)

... tormented burghers did not want war; they wanted peace! Peace at any price. The States, too, who held their session in Berlin, wanted peace, and to this end had sent out a deputation from their midst to the Elector at Koenigsberg to implore him to pity their distress and to command the Stadtholder in the Mark to abstain from ...

— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach

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