stress

nounverbcommon in dialogue

United Kingdom//ˈstɹɛs//
United Kingdom//ˈʃt͡ʃɹɛs//
United States//stɹɛs//

A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.

noun

1
A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.
2
Aggression toward an organism resulting in a response in an attempt to restore previous conditions.
3
The internal distribution of force across a small boundary per unit area of that boundary (pressure) within a body. It causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by σ or τ.
4
Force externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
5
Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
Go easy on him, he's been under a lot of stress lately.
6
A suprasegmental feature of a language having additional attention raised to a sound, word or word group by means of of loudness, duration or pitch; phonological prominence.
lexical stress
phrase stress, prosodic stress
Some people put the stress on the first syllable of “controversy”; others put it on the second.
7
The suprasegmental feature of a language having additional attention raised to a sound by means of loudness and/or duration; phonological prominence phonetically achieved by means of dynamics as distinct from pitch.
8
Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
9
distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.
10
Variant of distressobsoleteObsolete form of distress.
With this sad Hersal of his heavy stress, The warlike Damzel was empassion's sore, And said; Sir Knight, your Cause is nothing less Than is your Sorrow , certes if not more

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Proto-Indo-European *streyg- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *-ti Proto-Indo-European *strinégti Proto-Italic *stringō Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *stréngʰeti Proto-Italic *strengō Latin stringō Latin distringōder. Old French destrecierbor. Middle English destresse English stress From a shortening of Middle English destresse, borrowed from Old French destrecier, from Latin distringō (“to stretch out”). This form probably coalesced with Middle English stresse, from Old French estrece (“narrowness”), from Vulgar Latin *strictia, from Latin strictus (“narrow”). Displaced native Old English swēġ (“accent, stress”), though strictly in the grammatical sense. In the sense of "mental strain" or “disruption”, used occasionally in the 1920s and 1930s by psychologists, including Walter Cannon (1934); in “biological threat”, used by endocrinologist Hans Selye, by metaphor with stress in physics (force on an object) in the 1930s, and popularized by same in the 1950s.

verb

1
To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
2
To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
3
informalTo suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
4
To emphasise (a syllable of a word).
“Emphasis” is stressed on the first syllable, but “emphatic” is stressed on the second.
5
To emphasise (words in speaking).
6
To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.
I must stress that this information is given in strict confidence.

Forms

plural: stresses
past tense: stressed
past participle: stressed
present participle: stressing
third person singular: stresses

Streets · A surname.strength · The quality or degree of being strong.strengthen · To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase…

stress · A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.

stressed · Suffering stress (either physical or mental).stressful · Irritating; causing stress.stretch · To lengthen by pulling.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.