Distress, n.
Etymology: [OE. destresse, distresse, OF. destresse, destrece, F. détresse, OF. destrecier to distress, (assumed) LL. districtiare, fr. L. districtus, p. p. of distringere. See Distrain, and cf. Stress.]
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. Shak.
2. That which occasions suffering; painful situation; misfortune; affliction; misery. Affliction's sons are brothers in distress. Burns.
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. Bouvier. Kent. Burrill. If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle. Spenser. The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for. Blackstone. Abuse of distress. (Law) See under Abuse.
1 more senses
Syn. -- Affliction; suffering; pain; agony; misery; torment; anguish; grief; sorrow; calamity; misfortune; trouble; adversity. See Affliction.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Distress, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Distressed; p. pr. & vb. n. 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 Cor. iv. 8.
2. To compel by pain or suffering. Men who can neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of duty. A. Hamilton.
3. (Law)
To seize for debt; to distrain.
Syn. -- To pain; grieve; harass; trouble; perplex; afflict; worry; annoy.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for distress; he lists it under grief, misfortune, pain, poverty.
Where he writes about it:
Distress is too strong a word for little hurts, too feeble for the intensest suffering, but commonly applied to some continuous or prolonged trouble or need; as, the distress of a shipwrecked crew, or of a destitute family. — from pain
Poverty denotes strictly lack of property or adequate means of support, but in common use is a relative term denoting any condition below that of easy, comfortable living; privation denotes a condition of painful lack of what is useful or desirable, tho not to the extent of absolute distress; indigence is lack of ordinary means of subsistence; destitution is lack of the comforts, and in part even of the necessaries of life; penury is especially cramping poverty, possibly not so sharp as destitution, but continuous, while that may be temporary; pauperism is such destitution as throws one upon organized public charity for support; beggary and mendicancy denote poverty that appeals for indiscriminate private charity. — from poverty