| 1. | importance or significance attached to a thing; emphasis: to lay stress upon good manners. |
| 2. | Phonetics. emphasis in the form of prominent relative loudness of a syllable or a word as a result of special effort in utterance. |
| 3. | Prosody. accent or emphasis on syllables in a metrical pattern; beat. |
| 4. | emphasis in melody, rhythm, etc.; beat. |
| 5. | the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain. |
| 6. | Mechanics.
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| 7. | Physiology. a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism. |
| 8. | physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension: Worry over his job and his wife's health put him under a great stress. |
| 9. | a situation, occurrence, or factor causing this: The stress of being trapped in the elevator gave him a pounding headache. |
| 10. | Archaic. strong or straining exertion. |
| 11. | to lay stress on; emphasize. |
| 12. | Phonetics. to pronounce (a syllable or a word) with prominent loudness: Stress the first syllable of “runner.” Stress the second word in “put up with.” Compare accent (def. 18). |
| 13. | to subject to stress or strain. |
| 14. | Mechanics. to subject to stress. |
stress (strěs) n.
stress out Informal To subject to or undergo extreme stress, as from working too much. [Middle English stresse, hardship, partly from destresse (from Old French; see distress) and partly from Old French estrece, narrowness, oppression (from Vulgar Latin *strictia, from Latin strictus, past participle of stringere, to draw tight; see strait).] |
A physical factor, such as injury, or mental state, such as anxiety, that disturbs the body's normal state of functioning. Stress may contribute to the development of some illnesses, including heart disease and cancer.
Note: The term stress also refers to the physical and mental state produced in the body when it is influenced by such factors: “The stress of the new job was too much for Tim, so he requested reassignment to his old position in the company.”
stress
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stress (strěs)
n.
An applied force or system of forces that tends to strain or deform a body.
The resisting force set up in a body as a result of an externally applied force.
A physical or psychological stimulus that can produce mental tension or physiological reactions that may lead to illness.
STRESS
STRuctual Engineering Systems Solver.
A system for structural analysis problems in Civil Engineering. STRESS was superseded by STRUDL.
["STRESS: A User's Manual", S.J. Fenves et al, MIT Press 1964].
[Sammet 1969, p. 612].
(1995-01-31)