<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>great pain, anxiety, or sorrow; acute physical or mental suffering; affliction; trouble: distress over his mother's illness.</li><li>a state of extreme necessity or misfortune: After the stock market crash, he found himself in great financial distress.</li><li>the state of a ship or airplane requiring immediate assistance, as when on fire in transit.</li><li>that which causes pain, suffering, trouble, danger, etc.: His willful disobedience was a distress to his parents.</li><li>liability or exposure to pain, suffering, trouble, etc.; danger: a damsel in distress.</li><li>Law. the legal seizure and detention of the goods of another as security or satisfaction for debt, etc.; the act of distraining.</li><li>the thing seized in distraining.</li></ul><p><strong>Adjective</strong></p><ul><li>afflicted with or suffering distress: distress livestock; distress wheat.</li><li>caused by or indicative of distress or hardship: distress prices; distress borrowing.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>(used with object) to afflict with great pain, anxiety, or sorrow; trouble; worry; bother: It distresses Grandpa when you bring up the war.</li><li>to subject to pressure, stress, or strain; embarrass or exhaust by strain: to be distressed by excessive work.</li><li>to compel by pain or force of circumstances: Her faithlessness distressed him into ending their marriage.</li><li>to dent, scratch, or stain (furniture, lumber, or the like) so as to give an appearance of age: She used an old bicycle chain to distress the surface of the table before applying a deep stain.</li></ul>