distress

Distress is also a novel by Australian science fiction author Greg Egan, about the culmination of physics in a Theory of Everything and its (largely invented) implications for humanity and the Universe. The protagonist is a journalist sent to cover the Einstein Centenary Conference on Stateless, an artificial atoll created by a group of anarchist corporate defectors. The conference is to host the first presentation of the three most widely accepted candidates for the Theory of Everything and as a result attracts attendants from both the international scientific community and the ignorance cults, groups dedicated to stopping the discovery and publication of the Theory of Everything, motivated by a fear of eliminating every last mystery from nature.

The book opens with a somewhat disturbing scene: a man who has been stabbed to death is very temporarily revived with combination of techniques that ravage his body while granting him a few more lucid minutes of consciousness in which to tell investigators what he remembers of the attack.

Dis*tress" (?), n. [OE. destresse, distresse, OF. destresse, destrece, F. d'etresse, OF. destrecier to distress, (assumed) LL. districtiare, fr. L. districtus, p. p. of distringere. See Distrain, and cf. Stress.]

1.

Extreme pain or suffering; anguish of body or mind; as, to suffer distress from the gout, or from the loss of friends.

Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress. Shak.

2.

That which occasions suffering; painful situation; misfortune; affliction; misery.

Affliction's sons are brothers in distress. Burns.

3.

A state of danger or necessity; as, a ship in distress, from leaking, loss of spars, want of provisions or water, etc.

4. Law (a)

The act of distraining; the taking of a personal chattel out of the possession of a wrongdoer, by way of pledge for redress of an injury, or for the performance of a duty, as for nonpayment of rent or taxes, or for injury done by cattle, etc.

The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.

Bouvier. Kent. Burrill.

If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle. Spenser.

The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for. Blackstone.

Abuse of distress. Law See under Abuse.

Syn. -- Affliction; suffering; pain; agony; misery; torment; anguish; grief; sorrow; calamity; misfortune; trouble; adversity. See Affliction.

© Webster 1913.

Dis*tress", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Distressed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Distressing.] [Cf. OF. destrecier. See Distress, n.]

1.

To cause pain or anguish to; to pain; to oppress with calamity; to afflict; to harass; to make miserable.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. 2 Cor. iv. 8.

2.

To compel by pain or suffering.

Men who can neither be distressed nor won into a sacrifice of duty. A. Hamilton.

3. Law

To seize for debt; to distrain.

Syn. -- To pain; grieve; harass; trouble; perplex; afflict; worry; annoy.

© Webster 1913.