duress

Etymology

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

noun

  1. (obsolete) Harsh treatment.
  2. Constraint by threat.
  3. (law) 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.

verb

  1. To put under duress; to pressure.
    Someone was duressing her.
    The small nation was duressed into giving up territory.

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