facing or experiencing financial trouble or difficulty; "distressed companies need loans and technical advice"; "financially hard-pressed Mexican hotels are lowering their prices"; "we were hard put to meet the mortgage paymentng"; "it was apparent that the magazine was in trouble"; "found themselves in a bad way financially"
borrowing and leaving an article as security for repayment of the loan
(chess) the least powerful piece; moves only forward and captures only to the side; it can be promoted to a more powerful piece if it reaches the 8th rank
an article deposited as security
leave as a guarantee in return for money; "pawn your grandfather's gold watch"