duress

Meaning

Verb

To put under duress; to pressure.

Noun

1. (obsolete) Harsh treatment.
2. Constraint by threat.
3. Restraint in which a person is influenced, whether by lawful or unlawful forceful compulsion of their liberty by monition or implementation of physical enforcement; legally for the incurring of civil liability, of a citizen's arrest, or of subrogation, or illegally for the committing of an offense, of forcing a contract, or of using threats.

Synonyms

compulsion

imprisonment

confinement

coercion

restraint

pressure

constraint

durance

incarceration

force

custody

jittery

jumpy

leading edge

limitation

menace

necessitation

necessity

nervous

overwound

restriction

stint

terror

threat

threatening

trouble

wired

immurement

stress

violence

arm-twisting

like a cat on a hot tin roof

resty

bondage

laced-up

captivity

commitment

containment

curbing

cutting edge

difficulty

hardship

insistence

intimidation

isolation

Pronounced as (IPA)

/djʊˈɹɛs/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: -

In summary

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French duresse, from Latin duritia (“hardness”), from durus (“hard”).