Distress
Contents
English
Noun
Distress (uncountable)- (Cause of) discomfort.
- Serious danger.
- (law) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
Verb
Distress (third-person singular simple present distresses, present participle distressing, simple past and past participle distressed)
- To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
- (law) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
- To treat an object, such as an antique, to give it an appearance of age.
- She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.
Adjectives for Distress
simulated; palpable; widespread; pecuniary; horrible; mental; mortal; violent; keenest; intellectual; obvious; sore; obstinate; poignant; genuine; fearful; hideous; fancied; sentimental; dark; blind; generalized; terrified; needless; supreme; spiritual; bitter; fatherless; sensitive; financial; painted; severe; extreme; pathetic; heart-searching; recurrent; sharp; sublime; deep; chronic; painful; insupportable; bare; wide-eyed; cowering; dire; evident; unrelieved; supposed; public.
Verbs for Distress
afflict with—; aggravate—; answer—; bawl —; behold in—; consume with—; counsel , in—; deliver from—; embolden by—; expose to—; give rise to—; pity—; relieve—; soothe—; submit in—; suffer—; wait in-; wring with—; —afflicts; —crazes; —gnaws.
Adverbs for Distress
deeply; shockingly; mentally; triumphantly; dreadfully; palpably; pecuniarily; horribly; mortally; violently; obviously; sorely; poignantly; genuinely; fearfully; hideously; sentimentally; needlessly; recurrently; supremely; spiritually; chronically; painfully; insupportably; direly; publicly.
Synonyms for Distress
suffering, pain, trouble, grief, misery, agony, perplexity, misfortune, adversity, calamity, catastrophe, danger, need, hardship, misadventure, unhappiness, wretchedness, sorrow.
Antonyms for Distress
pleasure, comfort, gratification, satisfaction, joy, gaiety, hilarity, revelry, festivity.
Related terms
Thesaurus
Schmerz, abashment, abuse, ache, aches and pains, aching, adversity, afflict, affliction, aggrieve, agitate, agitation, agonize, agony, ail, all-overs, amercement, angary, angst, anguish, annexation, annexure, annoy, anxiety, anxiety hysteria, anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern, anxious seat, anxiousness, apprehension, apprehensiveness, attachment, be the matter, befoul, beset, bewitch, bite, bitter cup, bitter draft, bitter draught, bitter pill, bitterness, bleakness, blight, blow, bother, broken fortune, burden, burden of care, burn, calamity, cankerworm of care, care, catastrophe, chafe, chagrin, cheerlessness, collectivization, comfortlessness, commandeering, communalization, communization, complicate matters, concern, concernment, condemn, confiscation, confusion, constrain, convulse, corrupt, cramp, cross, crown of thorns, crucify, curse, cut, damage, damages, defile, deprave, depress, depression, desolation, despoil, destroy, difficulties, difficulty, disadvantage, disaster, discomfiture, discomfort, discommode, discomposure, disconcertion, disconcertment, discountenance, dismalness, dismay, disquiet, disquietude, disserve, distraint, distressfulness, disturb, disturbance, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, dolor, doom, dread, dreariness, embarrassment, eminent domain, encumbrance, envenom, escheat, escheatment, excruciate, execution, exigency, expropriation, fear, fester, fine, foreboding, forebodingness, forfeit, forfeiture, frazzle, fret, gall, gall and wormwood, garnishment, genteel poverty, get into trouble, give concern, give pain, gnaw, grate, grief, grievance, grieve, grievousness, grind, gripe, harass, hard pinch, hardship, harm, harrow, harry, heartache, heartbreak, hex, hurt, hurting, impair, impecuniosity, impecuniousness, impoundment, impressment, inconvenience, infect, inflame, inflict pain, infliction, injure, injury, inquietude, insolvency, irk, irritate, jinx, joylessness, kill by inches, lacerate, lament, lamentability, lamentation, lesion, levy, light purse, load, load with care, malaise, maltreat, martyr, martyrize, menace, misery, misfortune, misgiving, mistreat, molest, mortification, mourn, mournfulness, mulct, narrow means, nasty blow, nationalization, nervous strain, nervous tension, nervousness, nip, oppress, oppression, outrage, overanxiety, pack of troubles, pain, painfulness, pang, pass, passion, pathos, peck of troubles, perplex, persecute, perturb, perturbation, pester, pierce, pinch, pins and needles, pitiability, pitiableness, pitifulness, plague, play havoc with, play hob with, poignancy, poison, pollute, poorness, pother, poverty, prejudice, prick, prolong the agony, pucker, put out, put to it, put to torture, puzzle, rack, rankle, rasp, regrettableness, right of angary, rigor, rub, sadness, savage, scathe, sconce, sea of troubles, sequestration, sharpness, shock, slender means, socialization, solicitude, sore, sore spot, sorrow, sorrowfulness, spasm, stab, stew, sting, strain, strait, straitened circumstances, straits, stress, stress of life, stroke, suffering, suspense, taint, tender spot, tension, thorn, threaten, throes, tight squeeze, torment, torture, tragedy, trial, tribulation, trouble, try, tweak, twinge, twist, uneasiness, unhappiness, unprosperousness, unquietness, upset, vex, vexation, vicissitude, violate, visitation, voluntary poverty, vows of poverty, waters of bitterness, weigh, weight, woe, woebegoneness, woefulness, worry, wound, wreak havoc on, wrench, wretchedness, wring, wrong, zeal
Etymology
From Middle English < Old French destrecier (“to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress”) (French: détresse) < Medieval Latin as if *districtiare, an assumed frequentive form of Latin distringere (“to pull asunder, stretch out”) < dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”).
Pronunciation
Translations
Noun
- The translations below need to be checked.
Verb
External links
- Distress in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- Distress in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- Distress at OneLook Dictionary Search
