stress test

¹ American  

noun

1. a test, especially one conducted in a laboratory, to determine how much pressure, tension, wear, or the like a given product or material can withstand.

2. Medicine/Medical. a test of cardiovascular health made by recording heart rate, blood pressure, electrocardiogram, and other parameters while a person undergoes physical exertion.

3. a simulation test to determine how a given institution, system, etc., would perform under greater than usual stresses or pressures.

   the government’s stress test for big banks;

   mandatory stress tests for nuclear plants;

   a website stress test that simulates peak traffic.

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stress-test ² American  

[stres-test] / ˈstrɛsˌtɛst /

verb (used with object)

1. to subject to a stress test.

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Other Word Forms

• stress-testing noun

Etymology

Origin of stress test

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

For large U.S. banks, the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests are used by the regulator to set minimum capital ratios.

From MarketWatch

Larger banks also face stress tests and other burdensome regulations that smaller banks don’t.

From The Wall Street Journal

Other jobs for your “to-do” list: Estimate your monthly expenditure in retirement and stress test that against your income.

From MarketWatch

It juggles an abundant balance sheet, short-term funding markets, bank supervision and stress tests, and a fast-growing but opaque private-credit complex.

From Barron's

The retraction is also a black eye for the Network for Greening the Financial System, a group of central banks and financial regulators that incorporated the study’s projections into its bank climate stress test scenarios.

From The Wall Street Journal