Noun

(en noun)

a state of melancholy or depression; low spirits, the blues

The act of humbling or abasing oneself.

Adoration implies submission and dejection . — Bishop Pearson.

A low condition; weakness; inability.

A dejection of appetite. — Arbuthnot.

(medicine, archaic) Defecation or feces.

* {{quote-book

, year=1855 , year_published= , publisher=Linday & Blakiston , author=Austin Flint , title=Clinical Reports on Continued Fever Based on Analyses of One Hundred and Sixty-Four Cases , section=First Clinical Report on Continued Fever, Based on an Analysis of Forty-Two Cases citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=u_wRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA47&dq=dejection , page=39 , passage=No dejection since his entrance, nor has he passed urine.}}

* {{quote-book

, year=1861 , year_published=2010 , publisher=Applewood Books , author=James Jackson , title=Another Letter to a Young Physician , section=Note I. John Lowell citation , pageurl=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=usPFfQCrZmcC&pg=PA103&dq=dejections , isbn=9781429044141 , page=103 , passage=His dejections were frequent, loose, changing in character from hour to hour, made up of undigested food, of mucus and watery fluid, varying in color, mostly green, and never healthy in consistence, color, or odor.}}

* {{quote-book

, year=1921 , year_published=2000 , publisher=B. Jain Publishers , edition=2nd edition , author=Charles Signmund Raue , title=Diseases of Children - Homeopathic Treatment , section=Chapter IX Diseases of the Intestines citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=FTfWiens6csC&pg=PA206&dq=dejections , isbn=9788170211761 , pages=205-206 , passage=Chorera infantum may begin as an attack of acute indigestion, or, what is more frequently the case, suddenly, with severe vomiting and copious dejections , high fever and rapid prostration.}}

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.