Strain — Defs

01 n. Race; stock; generation; descent; family.

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.
4.
A cultural subvariety that is only slightly differentiated.(Hort.)

02 v. t. 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 …

imp. & p. p. Strained; p. pr. & vb. n. Straining

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.
2.
To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it.(Mech.)
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.

Phrases & compounds

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.

03 v. i. To make violent efforts.

1.
To make violent efforts.
“To build his fortune I will strain a little.” — Shak.
2.
To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.

04 n. The act of straining, or the state of being strained.

1.
The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
2.
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.
3.
A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress.(Mech. Physics)
4.
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.(Mus.)
“Their heavenly harps a lower strain began.” — Dryden.
5.
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.
“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.
6.
Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain. See: Strain
“Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements.” — Hayward.