distressed

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈstɹɛst/
• Rhymes: -ɛst
• Hyphenation: dis‧tressed

distressed (comparative more distressed, superlative most distressed)

1. Anxious or uneasy.

   I'm distressed that sexy John hasn't answered my calls. I hope nothing bad happened to him on the way here.

   • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Oh that thou wer't not, poore distreſſed ſoule.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 4:8:

     Wee are troubled on euery side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despaire,

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: , London: Nath Ponder , →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, , 1928, →OCLC:

     Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, "What shall I do to be saved?"

2. (of merchandise, etc.) Damaged.
3. (of a property) Offered for sale after foreclosure.
4. (of furniture, etc.) Faded or abused in order to appear old, or antique.
   • 2022, Carolyn Purnell, Blue Jeans, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 44:

     Distressed jeans bear all the signs of exertion, while the consumer never has to lift a finger. What could be more luxurious than that?

   • 2024 March 19, Maeve McClenaghan, “Damien Hirst formaldehyde animal works dated to 1990s were made in 2017”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Lawyers for Hirst accepted that his works had on occasion “been made to look older or distressed”.

5. (finance, of securities) Experiencing financial or operational distress, default, or bankruptcy.

   distressed debt

   • 2019 November 7, “Distressed debt funds are waiting for a downturn”, in The Economist‎, →ISSN:

     Funds that buy “distressed” debt, which typically yields ten percentage points or more over Treasuries, are becoming familiar villains.

   • 2023 May 25, “What properties would Sam Zell invest in next?”, in The Economist‎, →ISSN:

     Sam Zell called himself “the Grave Dancer”, even though, as he explained, his penchant for buying distressed assets “wasn’t so much dancing on graves as …raising the dead”.

   • 2023 December 16, “Musk told lenders they would not lose money on Twitter deal”, in FT Weekend, Companies & Markets, page 10:

     One multibillion-dollar firm that specialises in distressed debt called X's debt “uninvestable”.

distressed

1. simple past and past participle of distress