Search the Dictionary

Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious. A malignant and a turbaned Turk. Shak.

Inducing cause or occasion, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing; difficulty; trouble. And this is the matter why interpreters upon that passage in Hosea will not consent it to be a true story, that the prophet took a harlot to wife. Milton.

nning of sand. -- Minute gun, a discharge of a cannon repeated every minute as a sign of distress or mourning. -- Minute hand, the long hand of a watch or clock, which makes the circuit of the dial in an hour, and marks the minutes.

Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe. Chaucer. Destruction and misery are in their ways. Rom. iii. 16.

To afflict; to distress. [Obs.] Which infinitely moans me. Beau. & Fl.

A distraining or levying of a distress; an impounding. Burrill.

Full of need; in need or want; needy; distressing. [Archaic] Chaucer. The needful time of trouble. Bk. of Com. Prayer.

Distressed by want of the means of living; very por; indigent; necessitous. Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. Deut. xv. 11. Spare the bluches of needly merit. Dr. T. Dwight.

A vehement or loud cry; a cry of distress, alarm, opposition, or detestation; clamor.

At an end; beyond the limit of continuance; completed; finished. "Their distress was over." Macaulay. "The feast was over." Sir W. Scott.

Any uneasy sensation in animal bodies, from slight uneasiness to extreme distress or torture, proceeding from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; bodily distress; bodily suffering; an ache; a smart. "The pain of Jesus Christ." Chaucer.

Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing Addison.

A suffering or enduring of imposed or inflicted pain; any suffering or distress (as, a cardiac passion); specifically, the suffering of Christ between the time of the last supper and his death, esp. in the garden upon the cross. "The passions of this time." Wyclif (Rom. viii. 18). To whom also he showed himself alive a…

Figuratively: To cramp; to straiten; to oppress; to starve; to distress; as, to be pinched for money. Want of room . . . pinching a whole nation. Sir W. Raleigh.

To languish; to lose flesh or wear away, under any distress or anexiety of mind; to droop; -- often used with away. "The roses wither and the lilies pine." Tickell.

A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow- feeling; commiseration. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord. Prov. xix. 17. He . . . has no more pity in him than a dog. Shak.

apprehension; especially, an antecedent impression or conviction of something unpleasant, distressing, or calamitous, about to happen; anticipation of evil; foreboding.

To straiten; to distress; as, to be pressed with want or hunger.

Affliction; distress; grievance. My people's pressures are grievous. Eikon Basilike. In the midst of his great troubles and pressures. Atterbury.

said of conduct; as, prompt assistance. When Washington heard the voice of his country in distress, his obedience was prompt. Ames.