distress vs woe

distress

noun
  • Serious danger. 

  • A cause of such discomfort. 

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

  • Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature. 

  • A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt. 

  • An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt. 

verb
  • To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age. 

  • To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain. 

  • To cause strain or anxiety to someone. 

woe

noun
  • Calamity, trouble. 

  • Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness. 

  • A curse; a malediction. 

How often have the words distress and woe occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )