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Anxious vs Distress - What's the difference?

anxious | distress |

As an adjective anxious

is full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense;—applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.

As a noun distress is

(cause of) discomfort.

As a verb distress is

to cause strain or anxiety to someone.

anxious

English

(Anxiety) (Webster 1913)

Alternative forms

* anctious (obsolete)

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense;—applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious , despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 13, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , passage=But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.}}
  • Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying;—applied to things; as, anxious labor.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:The sweet of life, from which God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares.
  • Earnestly desirous; as, anxious to please.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He sneers alike at those who are anxious to preserve and at those who are eager for reform.

    • Usage notes

    * Anxious is followed by for, about, concerning, etc., before the object of solicitude.

    Synonyms

    * careful * concerned * disturbed * restless * solicitous * uneasy * unquiet * watchful

    Related terms

    * anger * anguish * anxiety

    External links

    * * English refractory feminine rhymes

    distress

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • (Cause of) discomfort.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1833 , author=John Trusler , title=The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings , chapter=8 citation , passage=To heighten his distress , he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connexions (with that unhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she never shall be able to surmount.}}
  • Serious danger.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1719 , author=Daniel Defoe , title=Robinson Crusoe , chapter=13 citation , passage=I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress , and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help.}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1759 , author=Voltaire , title=Candide , chapter=42 citation , passage=At length they perceived a little cottage; two persons in the decline of life dwelt in this desert, who were always ready to give every assistance in their power to their fellow-creatures in distress .}}
  • (legal) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
  • (legal) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.
  • * Spenser
    • If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.
  • * Blackstone
    • The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.

    Related terms

    * distrain * district

    Verb

    (es)
  • To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1827 , author=Stendhal , title=Armance , chapter=31 citation , passage=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.}}
  • (legal) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
  • *
  • To treat an object, such as an antique, to give it an appearance of age.
    • She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.

    External links

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