distresseth

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.
   • She respects me, no doubt, but has no longer any passionate feeling for me, and my death will distress her without plunging her in despair.1827, Stendhal, chapter 31, in Armance, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2011

   Synonyms:

   anguish, harrow, trouble, vex, torment, tantalize, tantalise, martyr, wring, gnaw

2. To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
   • This power of distress, as anciently used, became as oppressive as the feudal forfeiture. It was as hard for the tenant to be stripped in an instant of all his goods, for arrears of rent, as to be turned out of the possession of his farm.1894, James Kent with William Hardcastle Browne, Commentaries on American Law, page 645

   Synonyms:

   distrain

3. To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age.
   • a pair of distressed jeans

   Synonyms:

   age, antique, patinate

See all 9 meanings of distress