Webster's English Dictionary

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distress

1. dis.tress \dis-'tres\ n [ME destresse, fr. OF, fr. (assumed) VL 
   districtia, fr. L distri]ctus, pp. of distringere 1a: seizure and detention 
   of the goods of another as pledge or to obtain sa tisfaction of a claim by 
   the sale of the goods seized; broadly; an act of distraining 1b: the thing 
   distrained  obs  2: CONSTRAINT  3a: anguish of body or mind : TROUBLE  3b: 
   a painful situation : MISFORTUNE  4: a state of danger or desperate need 
   state of being in great trouble. DISTRESS implies an external and usu. 
   temporary cause of great physical or mental strain and stress; SUFFERING 
   implies conscious endurance of pain or distress and often a stoical 
   acceptance of it; MISERY stresses the unhappiness attending esp. sickness, 
   poverty, or loss, and often connotes sordidness, abjectness, or dull 
   passivity; AGONY suggests pain too intense to be borne SYN syn DISTRESS, 
   SUFFERING, MISERY, AGONY mean the 
2. distress \-in-le-\ vt 1: to subject to great strain or difficulties  2: 
   to cause to worry or be troubled : UPSET  archaic  3: to force or overcome 
   by inflicting pain  - dis.tress.ing.ly av
3. distress aj 1: offered for sale at a sacrifice {~ merchandise}  2: 
   involving distress goods {a ~ sale}