stress

From Middle English destresse, borrowed from Old French destrecier, from Latin distringere (“to stretch out”).[1]

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.

• IPA^(key): /stɹɛs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛs

stress (countable and uncountable, plural stresses)

1. (biology) A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.
2. (biology) Aggression toward an organism resulting in a response in an attempt to restore previous conditions.
3. (countable, physics) 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. (countable, physics) Force externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
5. (uncountable) Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.

   Go easy on him, he's been under a lot of stress lately.

6. (uncountable, phonetics) The emphasis placed on a syllable of a word.

   Some people put the stress on the first syllable of “controversy”; others put it on the second.

7. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on words in speaking.
8. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
9. Obsolete form of distress.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
10. (Scotland, law) distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

• (phonetics): accent, emphasis
• (on words in speaking): emphasis
• (on a point): emphasis

• stress deafness
• stress-free, stressfree
• stressful
• stresswise

stress (third-person singular simple present stresses, present participle stressing, simple past and past participle stressed)

1. To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
2. To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
3. (informal) To 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.

• (phonetics): emphasise/emphasize
• (on words in speaking): emphasise/emphasize
• (on a point): emphasise/emphasize, underline

• stressed
• stress out

• strain
• strait
• strict
• stringent
• stringency

Borrowed from English stress.

stress c or n (singular definite stressen or stresset, not used in plural)

1. stress

• stresse (verb)
• stresset (adjective)

Borrowed from English stress.

• Rhymes: -ɛs

• Audio

  (file)

stress m (uncountable)

1. stress

• stressen (“to be stressed”)
• stresskip
• stresskonijn

Borrowed from English stress.

• IPA^(key): /stʁɛs/

stress m (uncountable)

1. stress (emotional pressure)

• stresser

• “stress” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Borrowed from English stress.

• IPA^(key): /strɛsː/
• Rhymes: -ɛsː

stress n (genitive singular stress, no plural)

1. stress

• stressa
• stressaður

Borrowed from English stress.

stress m (invariable)

1. stress

Borrowed from English stress.

stress

1. imperative of stresse

stress m (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of estresse

Borrowed from English stress.

stress m (plural stresses)

1. stress

• estrés

Borrowed from English stress.

stress c

1. stress