Stress1. (n.) Distress.
2. (n.) Pressure, strain; -- used chiefly of immaterial things; except in mechanics; hence, urgency; importance; weight; significance.
3. (n.) The force, or combination of forces, which produces a strain; force exerted in any direction or manner between contiguous bodies, or parts of bodies, and taking specific names according to its direction, or mode of action, as thrust or pressure, pull or tension, shear or tangential stress.
4. (n.) Force of utterance expended upon words or syllables. Stress is in English the chief element in accent and is one of the most important in emphasis. See Guide to pronunciation, // 31-35.
5. (n.) Distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.
6. (v. t.) To press; to urge; to distress; to put to difficulties.
7. (v. t.) To subject to stress, pressure, or strain.
Thesaurus Entries
Alexandrine, accent, accentuate, accentuation, ache, aching, adverse circumstances, adversity, affliction, aggravation, ambivalence, ambivalence of impulse, amphibrach, amphimacer, anacrusis, anapest, anguish, annoyance, antispast, anxiety, arsis, assault, bacchius, bear, bear upon, bearing, beat, belabor, blight, blow, boost, buck, bull, bulldoze, bummer, bump, bump against, bunt, burden, butt, butt against, cadence, caesura, care, catalexis, chloriamb, chloriambus, clutch, colon, compulsion, concern, concernment, conflict, consequence, consequentiality, consideration, constraint, counterpoint, cram, cramp, cretic, crisis, cross, crowd, crunch, curse, cut, dactyl, dactylic hexameter, decompensation, diaeresis, difficulties, difficulty, dig, dimeter, dipody, distress, disturb, dochmiac, dolor, downer, drive, dwell on, elbow, elegiac, elegiac couplet, elegiac pentameter, emergency, emotional shock, emphasis, emphasize, epitrite, excellence, exigency, external frustration, feature, feminine caesura, focus on, foot, force, forcefulness, frustration, give emphasis to, goad, grief, harass, hard knocks, hard life, hard lot, hardcase, hardship, harp on, haul, head, heave, heptameter, heptapody, heroic couplet, hexameter, hexapody, high order, high pressure, high rank, highlight, hurt, hurtle, hustle, iamb, iambic, iambic pentameter, ictus, imperativeness, import, importance, impulse, impulsion, injury, insistence, interest, ionic, irk, irritation, italicize, jab, jam, jingle, jog, joggle, jolt, jostle, lesion, level of stress, lilt, mark, masculine caesura, materiality, measure, mental shock, mental strain, merit, meter, metrical accent, metrical foot, metrical group, metrical unit, metrics, metron, molossus, moment, mora, movement, nasty blow, nervous strain, nervous tension, note, nudge, numbers, overaccentuate, overemphasize, overexert, overexertion, overextend, overextension, overstrain, overstress, overtax, overtaxing, paeon, pain, pang, paramountcy, passion, pentameter, pentapody, period, pile drive, pinch, place emphasis on, play up, plight, point up, poke, precedence, predicament, preeminence, press, pressure, primacy, primary stress, priority, proceleusmatic, prod, prominence, prosodics, prosody, psychological stress, pull, punch, punctuate, push, pyrrhic, quantity, rack, ram, ram down, rash impulse, rattle, rhythm, rhythmic pattern, rhythmical stress, rigor, rub in, run, run against, sea of troubles, secondary stress, self-importance, shake, shock, shoulder, shove, significance, sore, sore spot, spasm, spondee, spotlight, sprung rhythm, star, strain, strain every nerve, straining, stress accent, stress and strain