GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 4 definitions

1.       
   Strain , n. [See Strene.]
   Race; stock; generation; descent; family.
   1913 Webster
   He is of a noble strain.
   Shak.
   
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   With animals and plants a cross between different varieties, or between individuals of the same variety but of another strain, gives vigor and fertility to the offspring.
   Darwin.
   
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   Hereditary character, quality, or disposition.
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   Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which, propogated, spoil the strain of nation.
   Tillotson.
   
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   Rank; a sort. “The common strain.” 
   Dryden.
   
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   (Hort.) A cultural subvariety that is only slightly differentiated.
   Webster 1913 Suppl.
         
       

2.       
   Strain, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Strained ; p. pr. & vb. n. Straining.] [OF. estraindre, estreindre, F. étreindre, L. stringere to draw or bind tight; probably akin to Gr.  a halter,  that which is squeezwd out, a drop, or perhaps to E. strike. Cf. Strangle, Strike, Constrain, District, Strait, a. Stress, Strict, Stringent.]
    To draw with force; to extend with great effort; to stretch; as, to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship; to strain the cords of a musical instrument. “To strain his fetters with a stricter care.”
   Dryden.
   
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   (Mech.) To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it.
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   To exert to the utmost; to ply vigorously.
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   He sweats,
   Strains his young nerves.
   Shak.
   
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   They strain their warbling throats
   To welcome in the spring.
   Dryden.
   
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   To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in the matter of intent or meaning; as, to strain the law in order to convict an accused person.
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   There can be no other meaning in this expression, however some may pretend to strain it.
   Swift.
   
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   To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship.
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   To injure in the muscles or joints by causing to make too strong an effort; to harm by overexertion; to sprain; as, to strain a horse by overloading; to strain the wrist; to strain a muscle.
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   Prudes decayed about may track,
   Strain their necks with looking back.
   Swift.
   
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   To squeeze; to press closely.
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   Evander with a close embrace
   Strained his departing friend.
   Dryden.
   
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   To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
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   He talks and plays with Fatima, but his mirth
   Is forced and strained.
   Denham.
   
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   The quality of mercy is not strained.
   Shak.
   
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   To urge with importunity; to press; as, to strain a petition or invitation.
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   Note, if your lady strain his entertainment.
   Shak.
   
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   To press, or cause to pass, through a strainer, as through a screen, a cloth, or some porous substance; to purify, or separate from extraneous or solid matter, by filtration; to filter; as, to strain milk through cloth.
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   To strain a point, to make a special effort; especially, to do a degree of violence to some principle or to one's own feelings. -- To strain courtesy, to go beyond what courtesy requires; to insist somewhat too much upon the precedence of others; -- often used ironically. Shak.
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3.       
   Strain , v. i.
    To make violent efforts. “Straining with too weak a wing.” 
   Pope.
   
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   To build his fortune I will strain a little.
   Shak.
   
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   To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.
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4.       
   Strain, n.
   The act of straining, or the state of being strained. Specifically: --
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   (a) A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles; as, he lifted the weight with a strain; the strain upon a ship's rigging in a gale; also, the hurt or injury resulting; a sprain.
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   Whether any poet of our country since Shakespeare has exerted a greater variety of powers with less strain and less ostentation.
   Landor.
   
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   Credit is gained by custom, and seldom recovers a strain.
   Sir W. Temple.
   
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   (b) (Mech. Physics) A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress.
   Rankine.
   
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   (Mus.) A portion of music divided off by a double bar; a complete musical period or sentence; a movement, or any rounded subdivision of a movement.
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   Their heavenly harps a lower strain began.
   Dryden.
   
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   Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, oration, book, etc.; theme; motive; manner; style; also, a course of action or conduct; as, he spoke in a noble strain; there was a strain of woe in his story; a strain of trickery appears in his career. “A strain of gallantry.” 
   Sir W. Scott.
   
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   Such take too high a strain at first.
   Bacon.
   
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   The genius and strain of the book of Proverbs.
   Tillotson.
   
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   It [Pilgrim's Progress] seems a novelty, and yet contains
   Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains.
   Bunyan.
   
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   Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain.
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   Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements.
   Hayward.
   
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