STRESS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Stress

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/strɛs/ Listen

noun

Stress n.

1.

Distress. (Obs.) "Sad hersal of his heavy stress."

2.

Pressure, strain; used chiefly of immaterial things; except in mechanics; hence, urgency; importance; weight; significance. "The faculties of the mind are improved by exercise, yet they must not be put to a stress beyond their strength." "A body may as well lay too little as too much stress upon a dream."

3.

(Mech. & Physics) The force, or combination of forces, which produces a strain; force exerted in any direction or manner between contiguous bodies, or parts of bodies, and taking specific names according to its direction, or mode of action, as thrust or pressure, pull or tension, shear or tangential stress. "Stress is the mutual action between portions of matter."

4.

(Pron.) Force of utterance expended upon words or syllables. Stress is in English the chief element in accent and is one of the most important in emphasis.

5.

(Scots Law) Distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

Stress of voice, unusual exertion of the voice.

Stress of weather, constraint imposed by continued bad weather; as, to be driven back to port by stress of weather.

To lay stress upon, to attach great importance to; to emphasize. "Consider how great a stress is laid upon this duty."

To put stress upon, or To put to a stress, to strain.

verb

Stress v. t.

1.

To press; to urge; to distress; to put to difficulties. (R.)

2.

To subject to stress, pressure, or strain.

3.

To subject to phonetic stress; to accent.

4.

To place emphasis on; to make emphatic; emphasize.

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Etymology of 'Stress'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Stress" Quotes from Famous Books

... than whom stands no higher in the Northern M.E. Church, aptly states the whole matter thus: "There are people who put stress on sentiment and emotion in religion. If they 'feel good,' they have no doubt as to their present security and their acceptance with God. These people covet moods and states of feeling. They revel in songs ...

— The Spirit and the Word - A Treatise on the Holy Spirit in the Light of a Rational - Interpretation of the Word of Truth • Zachary Taylor Sweeney

... unlawful to steal through stress of need. For penance is not imposed except on one who has sinned. Now it is stated (Extra, De furtis, Cap. Si quis): "If anyone, through stress of hunger or nakedness, steal food, clothing or beast, he shall do penance for ...

— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... her iron. "Well, I was sort of calculating on going over for a bit; Miss Shirley having laid particular stress on my coming and this being the first reg'lar doings since I joined the club. I told her and Pauline they mustn't look for me to go junketing 'round with them all the while, seeing I'm in office—so to speak—and my time pretty well taken up with my ...

— The S. W. F. Club • Caroline E. Jacobs

... too, upon which much stress is laid but about which I have very grave doubts, is the possibility of a unified organisation of the Empire for military defence. We are to have, it is suggested, an imperial Army and an imperial Navy, and so far, no doubt, as the guaranteeing of a general peace goes, ...

— An Englishman Looks at the World • H. G. Wells

... astrological predictions, which may be picked up in that immensity of fabling which disgraces history. He strenuously denies, or ridicules, what the greatest writers have said against this fanciful art, while he lays great stress on some passages from authors of no authority. The most pleasant part is at the close, where he defends the art from the objections of Mr. Chamber by recrimination. Chamber had enriched himself by medical practice; and when he charges the astrologers with merely aiming to gain ...

— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

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