different between distress vs penury
distress
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)
- (Cause of) discomfort.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
- Serious danger.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
- (medicine) An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.
- (law) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
- (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)
- To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
- Synonyms: anguish, harrow, trouble, vex, torment, tantalize, tantalise, martyr
- (law) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
- Synonym: distrain
- 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
distress From the web:
- what distress means
- what distressing news does hester
- what distresses giles corey
- what distressed property
- what distressed mathilde
- what distressed kisa gotami
- what does distress mean
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penury
English
Etymology
From Latin p?n?ria (“want”), related to paene (“scarcely”, adverb), c. 1400. Compare French pénurie.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?p?nj??i/, /?p?nj??i/
Noun
penury (usually uncountable, plural penuries)
- Extreme want; poverty; destitution.
- A lack of something; a dearth.
- Synonyms: barrenness, insufficiency
- 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XI:
- No! penury, inertness and grimace, / In some strange sort, were the land's portion. […]
Derived terms
- penurious
Translations
Further reading
- “penury”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “penury”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
Anagrams
- pruney
penury From the web:
- what penury means
- what penury does the poet talk of
- penury what does it means
- penury what is the word
- what does penury mean in the bible
- what is penury grant
- what does penury
- what does plenary mean
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