Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Strain?

\Strain\, n. (Hort.) A cultural subvariety that is only slightly differentiated.
\Strain\, n. [See {Strene}.] 1. Race; stock; generation; descent; family. He is of a noble strain. --Shak. 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. 2. Hereditary character, quality, or disposition. Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which, propogated, spoil the strain of nation. --Tillotson. 3. Rank; a sort. ``The common strain.'' --Dryden.
\Strain\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Strained}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Straining}.] [OF. estraindre, estreindre, F. ['e]treindre, 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}.] 1. 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. 2. (Mech.) To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it. 3. To exert to the utmost; to ply vigorously. He sweats, Strains his young nerves. --Shak. They strain their warbling throats To welcome in the spring. --Dryden. 4. 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. There can be no other meaning in this expression, however some may pretend to strain it. --Swift. 5. To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship. 6. 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. Prudes decayed about may track, Strain their necks with looking back. --Swift. 7. To squeeze; to press closely. Evander with a close embrace Strained his departing friend. --Dryden. 8. To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain. He talks and plays with Fatima, but his mirth Is forced and strained. --Denham. The quality of mercy is not strained. --Shak. 9. To urge with importunity; to press; as, to strain a petition or invitation. Note, if your lady strain his entertainment. --Shak. 10. 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. {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.
\Strain\ (str[=a]n), v. i. 1. To make violent efforts. ``Straining with too weak a wing.'' --Pope. To build his fortune I will strain a little. --Shak. 2. To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.
\Strain\, n. 1. The act of straining, or the state of being strained. Specifically: (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. Whether any poet of our country since Shakespeare has exerted a greater variety of powers with less strain and less ostentation. --Landor. Credit is gained by custom, and seldom recovers a strain. --Sir W. Temple. (b) (Mech. Physics) A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress. --Rankine. 2. (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. Their heavenly harps a lower strain began. --Dryden. 3. 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. Such take too high a strain at first. --Bacon. The genius and strain of the book of Proverbs. --Tillotson. It [Pilgrim's Progress] seems a novelty, and yet contains Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains. --Bunyan. 4. Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st {Strain}. Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements. --Hayward.