strain
/stɹeɪn/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms strains straining strained
- noun (archaic) Race; lineage, pedigree.
- noun (biology) A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one. “They say this year's flu virus is a particularly virulent strain.”
- noun (figurative) Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition. “There is a strain of madness in her family.”
- noun (music, poetry) 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, etc.
- noun Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.
- noun (rare) A kind or sort (of person etc.).
- noun (obsolete) Treasure.
- noun (obsolete) The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To hold tightly, to clasp.
- verb (transitive) To apply a force or forces to by stretching out. “to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship”
- verb (transitive) To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force. “The gale strained the timbers of the ship.”
- verb (transitive) To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
- verb (ambitransitive) To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable. “Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.”
- verb (transitive) To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning. “to strain the law in order to convict an accused person”
- verb (transitive) To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander.
- verb (intransitive) To percolate; to be filtered. “water straining through a sandy soil”
- noun The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
- noun A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles. “he jumped up with a strain”
- noun An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain.
- noun (uncountable, engineering) A dimensionless measure of object deformation either referring to engineering strain or true strain.
Synonyms
propensity proneness theme motive manner style tax stress tune melody air melodic line line melodic phrase mental strain nervous strain breed stock form variant var. tenor striving nisus pains straining song strive reach try
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-West Germanic *streun, from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).
From Middle English straynen, streinen, streynen, from Old French estreindre (whence French étreindre (“to grip”)), from Latin stringō (“to draw tight together, to tie”).
From Middle English strenen (“to beget, father, procreate”), from Old English strēonan, strīenan, strȳnan (“to beget, generate, gain, acquire”), from Proto-West Germanic *striunijan, from Proto-Germanic *striunijaną (“to furnish, decorate, acquire”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Race; stock; generation; descent; family.
- noun Hereditary character, quality, or disposition.
- verb 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.
- verb To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it.
Etymology [See Strene.]
Etymology [OF. estraindre, estreindre, F. étreindre, L. stringere to draw or bind tight; probably akin to Gr. strike. Cf. Strangle, Strike, Constrain, District, Strait, a. Stress, Strict, Stringent.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “strain”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details