Word Finder - distress

definition

(Cause of) discomfort.

definition

Serious danger.

definition

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

definition

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

definition

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

definition

To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

synonyms

• anguish
• harrow
• martyr
• tantalise
• tantalize
• torment
• trouble
• vex

definition

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

synonyms

• distrain

definition

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

example

She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.

synonyms

• age
• antique
• patinate

Her distress was rising with their tension.

Sensing similar distress in the man before her, she sat down.

She'll be armed, and I'm leaving her a distress beacon.

No, don't distress yourself...

Jackson could see her distress, so took the knife from her hand.

He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distress even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart wherein was left little room for fear,.

I will spend all my life, and give all that I have, to lessen the distress and sorrow with which this world seems filled.

Despite his anger, he felt the urge to touch her, to cradle her in his arms until her distress subsided.

Actually the French at this moment were suffering the most terrible distress - up to the Danube they had still found sufficient food for existence, but south of it, in the track of the Austrians, they found nothing.

After a period of great distress and cruel oppression, in 1866, on the demand for reforms being again refused, a general insurrection took place, which was only put down by great exertions on the part of the Porte.

The note of distress in her voice was echoed on Bianca's face.

He remembered only the dull gray weather now rainy and now snowy, internal physical distress, and pains in his feet and side.

The Distress for Rent Act 1737, however, enables a landlord to recover double rent from a tenant who holds over after having himself given notice to quit; while another statute in the reign of George II.

The result was to aggravate her distress.

I sense your distress, love.

The war with France at the beginning of this reign, with its attendant evils, quartering of troops, conscription and levies of money, joined with cattle disease and scanty harvests in plunging the land again into distress, from which it recovered very slowly.

Those of 1842 and 1844 caused extreme distress in the island.

But I love them, you know, and don't want to distress either of them.

It was hard to believe he didn't understand the source of her distress, and yet he acted as though he was baffled.

The single word was a combined expression of disgust and distress.

He felt her distress through their bond and suspected the Watcher upset her.

When he joined the Deans in the bakery-smelling kitchen, any apparent distress over his pending jury duty had vanished like a last piece of pie, replaced with jokes about grand-fatherhood and changing diapers.

The idea of caring for her overwhelmed him again.  He'd never had a reason to try to control his power or to focus on anything other than surviving.  That a simple little mortal could show him just how little his Immortal and demon powers really meant humbled him.  If he found his way, it would be because of her.  Her distress and sorrow were, buried but he still saw them.  She was trying to be brave, asking him for one last moment of comfort before what she thought was the end.

The handsome prince always rescues the damsel in distress.

A long absence of the Mediterranean fleet, and withdrawals of imperial forces, produce immediate distress.

Distress of seizure of property being the universal mode of obtaining satisfaction, whether for crime, breach of contract, non-payment of debt, or any other cause, the law of distress came into operation as the solvent of almost every dispute.

Their distress call is a high pitched beep beep beep sound.

To be understanding of the child's emotional distress.

The freighter Nostrodomo was diverted to investigate a distress call.

In this case, the ogre is the hero, the handsome prince is evil, and a group of damsels in distress discover they can take care of themselves, with too many witty takeoffs on other fairy tale assumptions along the way to mention.

Though his brother John Sherman was a leader in the party which had elected Lincoln, William Sherman was very conservative on the slavery question, and his distress at what he thought an unnecessary rupture between the states was extreme.

He unfairly blamed his chief minister, Archbishop Stratford, for his financial distress, and immediately on his return vindictively attacked him.

The distress of the Republic prevented it from equipping more than 55 ships, but the patriotism of the race was roused to white heat, and in De Ruyter they possessed an admiral of consummate skill and heroic character.

In the next quarter of an hour the German gunners found the target again and again, and by half-past seven the British cruisers were obviously in distress.

An insurrection of the Yorkshire peasants, which is to be ascribed in part to the distress caused by the enclosure of the commons on which they had been wont to pasture their cattle, and in part to the destruction of popular shrines, may have caused the king to defend his orthodoxy by introducing into parliament in 1539 the six questions.

Lake Chalco is also greatly reduced in size by railway fillings and irrigation works, to the great distress of the natives who have gained their living by fishing in its waters since long before the Spanish conquest.

Bank failures were numerous and commercial distress widespread.

Going outside Europe, an extreme instance of the results of combining a census with more definite administrative objects may be found in the census of China in 1711, when the population enumerated in connexion with a poll-tax and liability to military service, was returned as 28 millions; but forty years later, when the question was that of the measures for the relief of widespread distress, the corresponding total rose to 103 millions!

When the country was in distress, the queen felt a womanly repugnance for festivities; and yet it was undesirable that the court should incur the The court reproach of living meanly to save money.

The distress is due to spasmodic muscular contraction, and it comes on at intervals, each attack increasing the patient's misery.

If the stone happily finds its way into the intestine the distress suddenly ceases.

The development of mining and manufacturing was accompanied by economic distress among the farming classes, which found expression in the Jeffersonian Democratic party, organized in 1892.

In 1821 he was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the agricultural distress then prevailing, and the proposed relaxation of the corn laws embodied in the report was understood to have been chiefly due to his strenuous advocacy.

The average rainfall is 30 in., but the period 1891-1901 was a decade of low rainfall, and distress was caused by famine.

The four years which followed were a time of great perplexity and distress, though sometimes.

He had much practical common-sense, and keen sympathy for all who were in distress and for animals.

Economic distress increased the number of highway robberies, these in turn lamed commercial intercourse.

In the case of Germany he made many concessions which appeared to the Zelanti to be excessive, and made even still greater ones to France and Russia, to the great distress of the Poles.

Pennsylvania has no homestead law, but the property of a debtor amounting to $300 in value, exclusive of the wearing apparel of himself and family and of all Bibles and school-books in use, is exempt from levy and sale on execution or by distress for rent; and the exemption extends to the widow and children unless there is a lien on the property for purchase money.

Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, and died while crossing the pass of the Mont Cenis on the 5th or 6th of October 877.