distress vs fright

distress

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

  • A cause of such discomfort. 

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

  • Serious danger. 

  • 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. 

fright

noun
  • A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm. 

  • Someone strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion. 

adj
  • frightened; afraid; affright 

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