distress vs dread

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. 

dread

noun
  • Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror. 

  • A Rastafarian. 

  • Somebody or something dreaded. 

  • Reverential or respectful fear; awe. 

verb
  • To be in dread, or great fear. 

  • To style (the hair) into dreadlocks. 

  • To fear greatly. 

  • To anticipate with fear. 

adj
  • Terrible; greatly feared; dreaded. 

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