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distress

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[ UK /dɪstɹˈɛs/ ]
[ US /dɪˈstɹɛs/ ]
VERB
  1. bring into difficulties or distress, especially financial hardship
  2. cause mental pain to
    The news of her child's illness distressed the mother
NOUN
  1. the seizure and holding of property as security for payment of a debt or satisfaction of a claim
    Originally distress was a landlord's remedy against a tenant for unpaid rents or property damage but now the landlord is given a landlord's lien
  2. a state of adversity (danger or affliction or need)
    a ship in distress
    she was the classic maiden in distress
  3. extreme physical pain
    the patient appeared to be in distress
  4. psychological suffering
    the death of his wife caused him great distress
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How To Use distress In A Sentence

  • The flight crew made a distress call and the aircraft landed safely on one engine around 14 minutes after take-off.
  • And it was perhaps insensitive to try to sell pet funerals to distressed purchasers. Times, Sunday Times
  • Ms. Miller's imprisonment for civil contempt of court was less a perfect storm — to use one of the press 'hoarier clichés to characterize a grim convergence of unpleasant events — as it was a brownout, a distressing midsummer sign that a full power outage is on its way. The Great D.C. Plame-Out, Or: Novak, Lord of the Journo-Flies
  • An orbiting satellite picked up a distress signal from the ship's emergency beacon, standard equipment on all modern boats.
  • When we arrived she was in such a distressed state that we had to treat it with the upmost seriousness.
  • The poor little mite was obviously distressed and was hobbling around on its good leg, often resting on the ground.
  • In doing so, you have helped a pilot in distress and are a credit to [Air Force] Air Traffic Control.
  • It includes strategies for promoting high academic achievement as well as off-setting problems of alienation, disengagement, and emotional distress.
  • Clear-cut clinical evidence of a hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus should be present, such as respiratory distress, a continuous murmur, a hyperactive precordium, cardiomegaly and pulmonary plethora on chest x-ray. THE MEDICAL NEWS
  • Complication of mechanical ventilation in neonates with respiratory distress.
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