distress

  1. Noun.  (Cause of) discomfort.
  2. Noun.  Serious danger.
  3. Noun.  (legal) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
  4. Verb.  To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
  5. Verb.  (legal) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
  6. Verb.  To treat an object, such as an antique, to give it an appearance of age.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.