Noah Webster
Stress
STRESS, noun
1. Force; urgency; pressure; importance; that which bears with most weight; as the stress of a legal question. Consider how much stress is laid on the exercise of charity in the New Testament.
This, on which the great stress of the business depends--
2. Force or violence; as stress of weather.
3. Force; violence; strain.
Though the faculties of the mind are improved by exercise, yet they must not be put to a stress beyond their strength.
STRESS, verb transitive To press; to urge; to distress; to put to difficulties. [Little Used.]