Meaning

3 senses

  1. To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

    bedrücken, bekümmern, heimsuchen

    тревожитьtrevožitʹ

    cause mental pain to

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

    zurückbehalten, in Beschlag nehmen

  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.

    patinieren, (künstlich) altern, auf alt trimmen (vt.)Möbel, Kleidung

    старитьstaritʹ

Examples

101 sentences

  1. The ship's captain ordered the radio operator to send a distress signal.

    ruКапитан корабля приказал радисту послать сигнал о помощи. — Hellerick

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. I was distressed to see Tom so unhappy.

    ruЯ был очень огорчён, когда увидел, что Том так несчастен. — sharptoothed

    sharptoothed · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. It was extremely distressing.

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. Tom was very distressed.

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. It was very distressing.

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
to cause strain or anxiety:
to treat to make look old:
Deutsch
By meaning 3
to cause strain or anxiety:
to retain someone’s property:
to treat to make look old:

Origin

The verb is from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier (“to restrain, cons

The verb is from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier (“to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress”); compare French détresse. Ultimately from Medieval Latin as if *districtiō, an assumed frequentative form of Latin distringō (“to pull asunder, stretch out”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringō (“to draw tight, strain”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

distresses, distressing, distressed, distressed
Base formdistress · to distress
3rd person singulardistresses
Present participledistressing
Past simpledistressed
Past participledistressed

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theydistress
he, she, itdistresses

Past simpleLesson

all personsdistressed

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave distressed
he, she, ithas distressed

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill distress

Synonyms

27 synonyms
anguishB2harrowB2troubleB1tormentC1tantalizeC2gnawC1plagueC1harassC1ageA1antiqueB1vexmartyrwringafflict
Close in meaning
  • bring into difficulties or distress, especially financial hardship:straiten

Word family

1 related words
Derivedundistress

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
distractB2distractionB2distraughtdistributeB1distributionB1distributorB2districtB1

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

distress — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto