Compress vs Stress - What's the difference?
compress | stress |
To make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.
* D. Webster
* Melmoth
To be pressed together or folded by compression into a more economic, easier format.
To condense into a more economic, easier format.
To abridge.
(technology) To make digital information smaller by encoding it using fewer bits.
(obsolete) To embrace sexually.
A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.
A machine for compressing
(countable, physics) The internal distribution of force per unit area (pressure) within a body reacting to applied forces which causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by
(countable, physics) externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
(uncountable) Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
(uncountable, phonetics) The emphasis placed on a syllable of a word.
(uncountable) Emphasis placed on words in speaking.
(uncountable) Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
(Scotland, legal) distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.
To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
(informal) To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
To emphasise (a syllable of a word).
To emphasise (words in speaking).
To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.
As nouns the difference between compress and stress
is that compress is a multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice etc, used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury while stress is stress (emotional pressure).As a verb compress
is to make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.compress
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) compresser, from compressare 'to press hard/together', from compressus, the past participle of comprimere 'to compress', itself from com- 'together' + premere 'to press'Verb
- The force required to compress a spring varies linearly with the displacement.
- events of centuries compressed within the compass of a single life
- The same strength of expression, though more compressed , runs through his historical harangues.
- ''Our new model compresses easily, ideal for storage and travel
- This chart compresses the entire audit report into a few lines on a single diagram.
- If you try to compress the entire book into a three-sentence summary, you will lose a lot of information.
- (Alexander Pope)
Synonyms
* (press together ): compact, condense, pack, press, squash, squeeze * (be pressed together ): contract * (condense, abridge ): abridge, condense, shorten, truncateAntonyms
* (press together ): expand * (be pressed together ): decontract * (condense, abridge ): expand, lengthen * (make computing data smaller ): uncompressDerived terms
* compressed * compressed air * compressedly * compressibility * compressible * compression * compressive * compressive strength * compressor * decompressEtymology 2
From (etyl) compresse, from compresser 'to compress', from Late (etyl) compressare 'to press hard/together', from compressus, the past participle of comprimere 'to compress', itself from com- 'together' + premere 'to press'Noun
(es)- He held a cold compress over the sprain.
stress
English
Noun
- Go easy on him, he's been under a lot of stress lately.
- Some people put the stress on the first syllable of “controversy”; others put it on the second.
- (Spenser)
Synonyms
* (phonetics) accent, emphasis * (on words in speaking) emphasis * (on a point) emphasisVerb
- “Emphasis” is stressed on the first syllable, but “emphatic” is stressed on the second.
- I must stress that this information is given in strict confidence.