different between distress vs dread

English

Etymology

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 *districtiare, an assumed frequentative form of Latin distringere (“to pull asunder, stretch out”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”).

The noun is from Middle English distresse, from Old French destrece, ultimately also from Latin distringere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??st??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

distress (countable and uncountable, plural distresses)

1. (Cause of) discomfort.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
2. Serious danger.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
3. (medicine) An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.
4. (law) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
5. (law) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.

   • If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.

   • The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.

Derived terms

• distress signal

Antonyms

• (maladaptive stress): eustress

Related terms

• distrain
• district

Translations

Verb

distress (third-person singular simple present distresses, present participle distressing, simple past and past participle distressed)

1. To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

   Synonyms: anguish, harrow, trouble, vex, torment, tantalize, tantalise, martyr
2. (law) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.

   Synonym: distrain
3. To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age.

   Synonyms: age, antique, patinate

Translations

Further reading

• distress in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• distress in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• distress at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• disserts

English

Etymology

From Middle English dreden, from Old English dr?dan (“to fear, dread”), aphetic form of ondr?dan (“to fear, dread”), from and- +? r?dan (whence read); corresponding to an aphesis of earlier adread.

Akin to Old Saxon antdr?dan, andr?dan (“to fear, dread”), Old High German intr?tan (“to fear”), Middle High German entr?ten (“to fear, dread, frighten”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: dr?d, IPA^(key): /d??d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Verb

dread (third-person singular simple present dreads, present participle dreading, simple past and past participle dreaded)

1. (transitive) To fear greatly.
2. To anticipate with fear.
   • 1877, Anna Sewell, Black Beauty Chapter 22[1]

     Day by day, hole by hole our bearing reins were shortened, and instead of looking forward with pleasure to having my harness put on as I used to do, I began to dread it.

3. (intransitive) To be in dread, or great fear.

   • Dread not, neither be afraid of them.

4. (transitive) To style (the hair) into dreadlocks.

Derived terms

• dreadable
• dreadly
• dreadworthy

Translations

Noun

dread (countable and uncountable, plural dreads)

1. Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.
   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Advantages of Religion to particular Persons

     the secret dread of divine displeasure
2. Reverential or respectful fear; awe.

   • The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth.
3. Somebody or something dreaded.
4. (obsolete) A person highly revered.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, Faerie Queene

     Una, his dear dread

5. (obsolete) Fury; dreadfulness.
6. A Rastafarian.
7. (chiefly in the plural) dreadlock

Derived terms

• dreaden
• dreadful
• dreadless
• dreadsome

Translations

Adjective

dread (comparative dreader, superlative dreadest)

1. Terrible; greatly feared; dreaded.
2. (archaic) Awe-inspiring; held in fearful awe.

Derived terms

• dreadly

Translations

See also

• dreadlocks
• dreadnought

Anagrams

• adder, dared, radde, re-add, readd

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• dreads

Noun

dread m (plural dreads)

1. Clipping of dreadlock.