distress vs worry

distress

verb
  • To cause strain or anxiety to someone. 

  • 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. 

noun
  • 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. 

  • 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. 

worry

verb
  • To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt. 

  • To harass; to irritate or distress. 

  • To touch repeatedly, to fiddle with. 

  • To seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf. 

  • Disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress. 

noun
  • A strong feeling of anxiety. 

  • An instance or cause of such a feeling. 

  • A person who causes worry. 

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