distressed

adj — 5 senses

distressed

adj

/dɪˈstɹɛst/

1

Anxious or uneasy.

  • She is distressed because she can't find her keys.
  • Oh that thou wer't not, poore distreſſed ſoule.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
2 more examples
  • Wee are troubled on euery side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despaire,1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 4:8:
  • Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, "What shall I do to be saved?"1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC:
2

Usually, Of merchandise Damaged.

3

Of a property Offered for sale after foreclosure.

4

Usually, Of furniture Faded or abused in order to appear old, or antique.

  • Distressed jeans bear all the signs of exertion, while the consumer never has to lift a finger. What could be more luxurious than that?2022, Carolyn Purnell, Blue Jeans, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 44:
  • Lawyers for Hirst accepted that his works had on occasion “been made to look older or distressed”.2024 March 19, Maeve McClenaghan, “Damien Hirst formaldehyde animal works dated to 1990s were made in 2017”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
5

Business, Finance Of securities Experiencing financial or operational distress, default, or bankruptcy.

  • distressed debt
  • Funds that buy “distressed” debt, which typically yields ten percentage points or more over Treasuries, are becoming familiar villains.2019 November 7, “Distressed debt funds are waiting for a downturn”, in The Economist, →ISSN:
2 more examples
  • Sam Zell called himself “the Grave Dancer”, even though, as he explained, his penchant for buying distressed assets “wasn’t so much dancing on graves as …raising the dead”.2023 May 25, “What properties would Sam Zell invest in next?”, in The Economist, →ISSN:
  • One multibillion-dollar firm that specialises in distressed debt called X's debt “uninvestable”.2023 December 16, “Musk told lenders they would not lose money on Twitter deal”, in FT Weekend (Companies & Markets section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10:
Derived terms
distressedly, distressedness, distressed sale, nondistressed, predistressed, pre-distressed, undistressed

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.