See Also: duress(medicine)
Duress(money)
duress(dictionary)
duress(dictionary)

duress (iou)



duress noun. Also duresse. ME.
[Old French duresse from Latin duritia, from durus hard: see -ESS2.]
Harsh treatment; oppression, cruelty; harm, injury. ME-L17.
Hardness; roughness, violence; endurance, firmness. LME-M17.
Constraint, compulsion, esp. through imprisonment, threats, or violence; spec. in Law, constraint illegally exercised to force a person to perform an act. LME.
J. L. Austin Voidable for duress or undue influence. A. Fraser A laborious composition, no doubt written under duress.
Forced confinement, imprisonment. Cf. DURANCE 2. LME.
J. McCarthy Some of the missionaries had been four years in duresse.