under pressure
Bearing down hard
Under pressure describes the state of being subjected to force or urgency.
The literal sense involves physical compression: The pipe burst under pressure.
More often it describes psychological stress from deadlines, expectations, or difficult circumstances: She performs well under pressure, He cracked under pressure.
The phrase captures the experience of external forces bearing down and demanding response.
- breaking pointMoment of collapse
- boiling pointVaporization threshold
- tensionStretched or strained state
- deadlineTime limit for completion
- tight deadlineImminent due date
time crunch · anxiety · strain · overwhelmed · compression · Bowie · force · crisis · heat of the moment · burnout · coping · nerves of steel · diamond · high stakes · stress · expectation · barometric · hydraulic
- hardshipshardship, adversity, struggle, misfortune, difficulties
- overwhelmedstressed, overwhelmed, stressed out, burnt out, burned out
- machine idiomswell-oiled machine, gears turning, firing on all cylinders, grinding gears, full steam ahead
- pressureabsolute, psi, pascal, kilopascal, hectopascal
- Overloadedpacked, stuffed, crammed, jammed, full
under pressurerelaxed
Free of stress
at ease · calm · stress-free · carefree · untroubled
under pressureunpressured
Free from external demands
unconstrained · unburdened · of one's own free will · uncoerced · voluntarily
under pressuredepressurized
Had pressure released
decompressed · unpressurized · at rest · released · expanded
under, pressure, pressuring, pressurize, pressurized, depressurize, pressurizer, depressurized