stress

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Importance, significance, or emphasis placed on something. See Synonyms at emphasis.
2. n. Linguistics The relative force with which a sound or syllable is spoken.
3. n. Linguistics The emphasis placed on the sound or syllable spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase.
4. n. The relative force of sound or emphasis given a syllable or word in accordance with a metrical pattern.
5. n. A syllable having strong relative emphasis in a metrical pattern.
6. n. Accent or a mark representing such emphasis or force.
7. n. Physics An applied force or system of forces that tends to strain or deform a body.
8. n. Physics The internal resistance of a body to such an applied force or system of forces.
9. n. A mentally or emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and capable of affecting physical health, usually characterized by increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability, and depression.
10. n. A stimulus or circumstance causing such a condition.
11. n. A state of extreme difficulty, pressure, or strain: "He presided over the economy during the period of its greatest stress and danger” ( Robert J. Samuelson).
12. v. To place emphasis on: stressed basic fire safety.
13. v. To give prominence to (a syllable or word) in pronouncing or in accordance with a metrical pattern.
14. v. To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension, or strain.
15. v. To subject to mechanical pressure or force.
16. v. To construct so as to withstand a specified stress.
17. stress out Informal To subject to or undergo extreme stress, as from working too much.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To straiten; constrain; press; urge; hamper.
2. In mech., to subject to a stress.
3. To lay the stress, emphasis, or accent on; emphasize.
4. n. Constraining, urging, or impelling force; constraining power or influence; pressure; urgency; violence.
5. n. In mech., an elastic force, whether in equilibrium with an external force or not; the force called into play by a strain. This word was introduced into mechanics by Rankine in 1855. In the following year Sir William Thomson used the word as synonymous with pressure, or an external force balanced by elastic forces. The terminology has been further confused by the use of Rankine's word strain, by Thomson and others, as a synonym for deformation. The words stress and strain are needed in the senses originally given to them by Rankine; while they both have familiar equivalents to which they have been wrested. At present, some writers use them in one way and some in the other.
6. n. Stretch; strain; effort.
7. n. Weight; importance; special force or significance; emphasis.
8. n. The relative loudness with which certain syllables or parts of syllables are pronounced; emphasis in utterance; accent; ictus. In elocution, initial, opening, or radical stress is stress or emphasis at the beginning; medial or median stress is that in the middle; and close, final, or vanishing stress is stress at the end of a vowel-sound. The union of initial and final is compound stress, that of all three stresses is thorough stress.
9. n. Relatively to another stress, a stress orthogonal to a strain perfectly concurrent with the other stress.
10. n. Relatively to an infinitesimal homogeneous strain, a stress such that, if the strain be so compounded with a rotation as to produce a pure strain, the motions of the particles upon the surface of a sphere relatively to its center represent in magnitude and direction the components of the stress.
11. n. Synonyms Accent, etc. See emphasis.
12. n. Distress; difficulty; extremity; pinch.
13. n. In law: The act of distraining; distress.
14. n. A former mode of taking up indictments for circuit courts.
15. n. In electricity, electromotive force; difference of potential; pressure: as, a stress of 2000 volts.
16. n. A stress in the direction opposite to the usual stress to which a piece in a structure is subjected. In this case the negative stress may be either tension or compression.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable, physics The internal distribution of force per unit area (pressure) within a body reacting to applied forces which causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by σ
2. n. countable, physics externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
3. n. uncountable Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.
4. n. uncountable, phonetics The emphasis placed on a syllable of a word.
5. n. uncountable Emphasis placed on words in speaking.
6. n. uncountable Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
7. v. To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
8. v. To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
9. v. informal To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
10. v. To emphasise (a syllable of a word).
11. v. To emphasise (words in speaking).
12. v. To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Distress.
2. n. Pressure, strain; -- used chiefly of immaterial things; except in mechanics; hence, urgency; importance; weight; significance.
3. n. (Mech. & Physics) 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. (Pron.) 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. (Scots Law) Distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.
6. v. rare To press; to urge; to distress; to put to difficulties.
7. v. To subject to stress, pressure, or strain.
8. v. To subject to phonetic stress; to accent.
9. v. To place emphasis on; to make emphatic; emphasize.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. to stress, single out as important
2. n. special emphasis attached to something
3. v. put stress on; utter with an accent
4. n. difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension
5. n. (physics) force that produces strain on a physical body
6. n. (psychology) a state of mental or emotional strain or suspense
7. n. the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch)
8. v. test the limits of