Strain
Definition of Strain
Pronunciation: strān | n. | 1. | Race; stock; generation; descent; family.He is of a noble strain. - Shak. | | 2. | Hereditary character, quality, or disposition. | | 3. | Rank; a sort. | | 4. | (Hort.) A cultural subvariety that is only slightly differentiated. | | v. t. | 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. | (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. | | 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. | | 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. | | 7. | To squeeze; to press closely. | | 8. | To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain. | | 9. | To urge with importunity; to press; as, to strain a petition or invitation. | | 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. | | v. i. | 1. | To make violent efforts. | | 2. | To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil. | | n. | 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. | | 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. | | 3. | (Mech. Physics) A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress. | | 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.Such take too high a strain at first. - Bacon. | | 4. | Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain. |
Related Words
Spenserian stanza, abrade, affectation, affiliation, agitation, aim, air, all-overs, anacrusis, ancestry, angst, animal kingdom, animus, antistrophe, anxiety, anxiety hysteria, anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern, anxious seat, anxiousness, apparentation, apprehension, apprehensiveness, aptitude, aria, back down, balance, balk, bark, bass passage, be determined, belie, bent, bias, bid for, birth, bleed, blemish, blench, bloat, bloating, blood, bloodline, bloody, boggle, bolt, book, bourdon, bracket, brain fag, branch, brand, break, breaking point, bridge, brood, burden, burn, cadence, camouflage, cankerworm of care, canto, cantus, care, cast, caste, category, chafe, character, check, chill, chilliness, chip, chorus, clan, clarify, class, claw, clear, coda, coldness, color, command of language, common ancestry, community, complexion, concern, concernment, consanguinity, constitution, contend for, continue, coolness, couplet, crack, crane, craze, culture, cut, damage, debate, debilitation, debility, decrassify, deliberate, demand, deme, demur, denomination, depurate, derivation, descant, descendants, descent, description, designation, determination, development, diathesis, direct line, disaffinity, discharge, disguise, disposition, disquiet, disquietude, distaff side, distension, distich, distill, distort, distress, disturbance, division, draft, drag, drag out, drain, draw, draw off, draw out, dread, dress up, drift, drive, eccentricity, edulcorate, effort, effuse, elongate, elongation, elute, embellish, embroider, emit, endeavor, enervation, enfeeblement, enmity, envoi, epode, essentialize, estate, ethnic group, evidence, exaggeration, exceed, excrete, exertion, exfiltrate, exposition, expression of ideas, extend, extension, extract, extraction, extravasate, extreme tension, exudate, exude, eyestrain, faintness, falsify, falter, family, fashion, fatigue, fear, feather, feeling for words, female line, fight shy of, figure, filiation, filtrate, flinch, folderol, folk, force, foreboding, forebodingness, form, form of speech, fracture, fray, frazzle, fret, frost, fudge, gag, gall, garble, gash, genre, gens, genus, gild, give off, gloss, gloss over, goneness, grace of expression, grade, grain, grandiloquence, group, grouping, hang back, hang off, harass, harmonic close, haul, have qualms, head, heading, heart strain, heave, hem and haw, heptastich, heritage, hesitate, hexastich, hint, hold off, house, hover, hum and haw, humor, hurt, iciness, idiosyncrasy, ilk, impair, impression, incise, inclination, incompatibility, incompatibleness, indication, individualism, inflate, inflation, inhospitality, inimicality, injury, inquietude, interlude, intermezzo, introductory phrase, irk, jadedness, jib, kidney, kin, label, labor, lacerate, languor, lassitude, lay, leach, leaning, lengthen, lengthen out, lengthening, let out, level, line, line of descent, lineage, literary style, lixiviate, lot, lug, maim, make, make an effort, make bones about, make mincemeat of, makeup, malaise, male line, manner, manner of speaking, mannerism, mark, mask, matriclan, maul, measure, melodia, melodic line, melody, mental fatigue, mental set, mental strain, mettle, mind, mind-set, miscite, miscolor, misconstrue, misdirect, misgiving, misinterpret, misquote, misrender, misreport, misrepresent, misstate, misuse, mode, mode of expression, moil, mold, monostich, mood, movement, music, musical phrase, musical sentence, mutilate, nation, nationality, nature, nervous strain, nervous tension, nervousness, note, number, obligation, octastich, octave, octet, ooze, order, ornament, ottava rima, overanxiety, overburden, overcarrying, overdevelop, overdistend, overdistension, overdoing, overdraw, overdrawing, overemphasis, overexercise, overexert, overexertion, overexpand, overexpansion, overexpenditure, overextend, overextension, overimportance, overreaching, overreaction, overstate, overstrain, overstraining, overstress, overstretch, overstretching, overtax, overtaxing, overtiredness, overuse, overwork, pain, parentage, part, passage, patriclan, pause, peculiarity, pedigree, pentastich, people, percolate, period, personal conflict, personal style, persuasion, perturbation, pervert, phrase, phratry, phylum, pierce, pigeonhole, pins and needles, plant kingdom, ponder, position, predicament, predilection, predisposition, preference, press, pressure, proclivity, produce, production, prolong, prolongate, prolongation, propensity, protract, protraction, pucker, pull, pull back, pull for, puncture, purify, push, quail, quality, quatrain, race, rack, rank, rating, recoil, rectify, reek, refine, refrain, rend, resolution, resolve, response, retreat, rhetoric, rhyme royal, rip, ritornello, roots, rubric, run, rupture, savage, scald, scorch, scotch, scrape, scratch, scruple, scuff, section, seed, seek, seep, sense of language, separate, sept, septet, sestet, set, sew, sextet, shape, shilly-shally, shrink, shy, shy at, side, sieve, sift, sign, skin, slant, slash, sleepiness, slit, snapping point, society, solicitude, solo, solo part, song, soprano part, sort, sound, soupcon, spear side, species, speech community, spin out, spindle side, spirit, spiritualize, stab, stamp, stance fatigue, stanza, statement, station, status, stave, stem, stew, stick, stick at, stickle, stirps, stop to consider, straddle the fence, strain at, strain every nerve, strain for, straining, strains, stratum, streak, stress, stress and strain, stressfulness, stretch out, stretching, string out, stringing out, stripe, strive, strive for, striving, strophe, struggle, struggle for, study, stumble, style, stylistic analysis, stylistics, subdivision, subgroup, sublimate, sublime, suborder, succession, suggestion, supererogation, surpass, suspense, suspicion, sweat, sweat blood, swell, swelling, sword side, syllable, tailpiece, tauten, tautness, tax, taxing, tear, temper, temperament, tendency, tenor, tense, tenseness, tension, tercet, terza rima, tetrastich, the grand style, the like of, the likes of, the plain style, the sublime, theme, think twice about, thread, tiredness, titivate, title, toil, tone, torture, totem, trace, trait, transpire, transude, traumatize, treble, tribe, trick, trick out, triplet, tristich, trouble, try, try for, try hard, tug, tune, turn, turn of mind, tutti, tutti passage, twist, type, unamiability, uncordiality, understate, uneasiness, unfriendliness, ungeniality, unquietness, unsociability, upset, variation, varnish, vein, verse, vestige, vexation, warp, waver, way, weakness, wearifulness, weariness, weep, whitewash, wince, winnow, withdraw, work, worry, wound, wrench, yield, zeal
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Straight
Straight arch
Straight ticket
Straight-joint
Straight-lined
Straight-out
Straight-pight
Straight-spoken
Straight-way valve
Straightedge
Straighten
Straightener
Straightforth
Straightforward
Straighthorn
Straightly
Straightness
Straightway
Straightways
Straik
-Strain-
Strainable
Strainably
Strained
Strainer
Straining
Straining piece
Straint
Strait
Strait-handed
Strait-jacket
Strait-laced
Strait-waistcoat
Straiten
Straitly
Straitness
Strake
Strale
Stram
Stramash
Stramazoun
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