In Maritime and Aircraft terms, distress is defined as:

Grave and Imminent Danger to Life Person Vessel or Aircraft

Requiring Immediate Assistance

• In medicine, distress is stress (medicine) caused by adverse events.
• Distress is a novel by Greg Egan
• Distress is also used by Search and Rescue services to describe targets in adverse or critical conditions.
• Distress can also refer to the process whereby materials are worn down by time and natural forces (they are distressed).
• In law, distress, or distraint, is the act of seizing goods to compel payment, or the goods thus seized.