pre-distressed

adjective

Already distressed before purchase, artificially made to look worn and old.

OriginEnglish distressed ← Middle English pre- ← Latin prae- →
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Meanings

adjectivepre-distressed (not comparable)

alternative predistressed

  1. colloquialnot comparableAlready distressed before purchase, artificially made to look worn and old.

    a new pre-distressed J.Crew cap

    2004 August 30, The New Yorker, page 38
    1 more example

    People today love pre-distressed denim for the same reason earlier generations loved singing cowboys. They're beautiful fictions that allow us to live in the most comfortable parts of our past without enduring the pain that truly went along with it.

    2022, Carolyn Purnell, Blue Jeans, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 45

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*préh₂i?
  4. Proto-Italic*prai
  5. Proto-Italic*prai-
  6. Latinprae-
  7. Middle Englishpre-
  8. Englishpre-
  9. Englishdistressed
  10. Englishpre-distressed

From pre- + distressed.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pre-distressed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-distressed

MLA

“pre-distressed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-distressed. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pre-distressed,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pre-distressed.

Source: pre-distressed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.