Definition of "distress" in English

noun

1. Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature.

2. A cause of such discomfort.

3. Serious danger.

4. (medicine, psychology) An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.

5. (law) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.

6. (law) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.

verb

1. To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

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

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

   • a pair of distressed jeans
   • She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.