Distress vs Downfall - What's the difference?
distress | downfall | Related terms |
(Cause of) discomfort.
* {{quote-book
, year=1833
, author=John Trusler
, title=The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings
, chapter=8
Serious danger.
* {{quote-book
, year=1719
, author=Daniel Defoe
, title=Robinson Crusoe
, chapter=13
* {{quote-book
, year=1759
, author=Voltaire
, title=Candide
, chapter=42
(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
* Blackstone
To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
* {{quote-book
, year=1827
, author=Stendhal
, title=Armance
, chapter=31
(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.
A precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=May 13
, author=Alistair Magowan
, title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd
, work=BBC Sport
The cause of such a fall; a critical blow or error.
*
An act of falling down.
* (Thomas Hardy), A Laodicean
To fall down; deteriorate; decline.
* 1977 , Mina P. Shaughnessy, Errors and expectations: a guide for the teacher of basic writing :
* 1998 , Peter Vink, Ernst A. P. Koningsveld, Steven Dhondt, Human factors in organizational design and management-VI :
* 1998 , Lithuanian physics journal:
* 2008 , Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra :
Distress is a related term of downfall.
As nouns the difference between distress and downfall
is that distress is (cause of) discomfort while downfall is a precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.As verbs the difference between distress and downfall
is that distress is to cause strain or anxiety to someone while downfall is to fall down; deteriorate; decline.distress
English
Noun
(-)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.}}
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.}}
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 .}}
- If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.
- The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.
Verb
(es)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.}}
- She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.
External links
* * *downfall
English
Noun
(en noun)- Many economic and political reasons led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.
citation, page= , passage=The Black Cats contributed to their own downfall for the only goal when Titus Bramble, making his first appearance since Boxing Day, and Michael Turner, let Phil Jones' cross bounce across the six-yard box as Rooney tucked in at the back post.}}
- It is the downfall of evil, that it never sees far enough ahead.
Synonyms
* (precipitous decline in fortune) fall * (death or rapid deterioration) doomDerived terms
*Verb
- [...] wants to make civilization his subject, he will have a hard time proceeding with the sentence unless collapse is in his active vocabulary, for he cannot say "our civilization will downfall " or "fall down."
- Common belief has been that in the future the number of middle managers will downfall due to empowerment and team-building.
- It should be noted that the magnitude of satellites decreases when tuning out of degeneracy, and in the wavelength range of 1.2-1.3 pm it downfalls to the value of 10-15% of the main spike magnitude.
- [...] As goodly air as ever From lunar orb downfell — Be it by hazard, Or supervened it by arrogancy?