strain

strain
    n 1: (physics) deformation of a physical body under the action
         of applied forces
    2: difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension; "she
       endured the stresses and strains of life"; "he presided over
       the economy during the period of the greatest stress and
       danger"- R.J.Samuelson [syn: {stress}, {strain}]
    3: a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence; "she
       was humming an air from Beethoven" [syn: {tune}, {melody},
       {air}, {strain}, {melodic line}, {line}, {melodic phrase}]
    4: (psychology) nervousness resulting from mental stress; "his
       responsibilities were a constant strain"; "the mental strain
       of staying alert hour after hour was too much for him" [syn:
       {strain}, {mental strain}, {nervous strain}]
    5: a special variety of domesticated animals within a species;
       "he experimented on a particular breed of white rats"; "he
       created a new strain of sheep" [syn: {breed}, {strain},
       {stock}]
    6: (biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ
       in trivial ways from similar groups; "a new strain of
       microorganisms" [syn: {form}, {variant}, {strain}, {var.}]
    7: injury to a muscle (often caused by overuse); results in
       swelling and pain
    8: the general meaning or substance of an utterance; "although I
       disagreed with him I could follow the tenor of his argument"
       [syn: {tenor}, {strain}]
    9: an effortful attempt to attain a goal [syn: {striving},
       {nisus}, {pains}, {strain}]
    10: an intense or violent exertion [syn: {strain}, {straining}]
    11: the act of singing; "with a shout and a song they marched up
        to the gates" [syn: {song}, {strain}]
    v 1: to exert much effort or energy; "straining our ears to
         hear" [syn: {strive}, {reach}, {strain}]
    2: test the limits of; "You are trying my patience!" [syn:
       {try}, {strain}, {stress}]
    3: use to the utmost; exert vigorously or to full capacity; "He
       really extended himself when he climbed Kilimanjaro"; "Don't
       strain your mind too much" [syn: {strain}, {extend}]
    4: separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device
       to separate out coarser elements; "sift the flour" [syn:
       {sift}, {sieve}, {strain}]
    5: cause to be tense and uneasy or nervous or anxious; "he got a
       phone call from his lawyer that tensed him up" [syn: {tense},
       {strain}, {tense up}] [ant: {loosen up}, {make relaxed},
       {relax}, {unlax}, {unstrain}, {unwind}]
    6: become stretched or tense or taut; "the bodybuilder's neck
       muscles tensed;" "the rope strained when the weight was
       attached" [syn: {strain}, {tense}]
    7: remove by passing through a filter; "filter out the
       impurities" [syn: {filter}, {filtrate}, {strain}, {separate
       out}, {filter out}]
    8: rub through a strainer or process in an electric blender;
       "puree the vegetables for the baby" [syn: {puree}, {strain}]
    9: alter the shape of (something) by stress; "His body was
       deformed by leprosy" [syn: {deform}, {distort}, {strain}]
    

Strain \Strain\, n. [See {Strene}.]
   1. Race; stock; generation; descent; family.
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            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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   2. 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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   3. Rank; a sort. "The common strain." --Dryden.
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   4. (Hort.) A cultural subvariety that is only slightly
      differentiated.
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Strain \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.
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   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.
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   3. 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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   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.
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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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   5. To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of
      force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship.
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   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.
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            Prudes decayed about may track,
            Strain their necks with looking back. --Swift.
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   7. To squeeze; to press closely.
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            Evander with a close embrace
            Strained his departing friend.        --Dryden.
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   8. 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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   9. 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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   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.
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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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Strain \Strain\ (str[=a]n), v. i.
   1. 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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   2. To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through
      a sandy soil.
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Strain \Strain\, n.
   1. 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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   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.
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            Their heavenly harps a lower strain began. --Dryden.
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   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.
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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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   4. 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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671 Moby Thesaurus words for "strain":
      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, breed,
      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, filter, 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, harm,
      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, injure, injury,
      inquietude, interlude, intermezzo, introductory phrase, irk,
      jadedness, jib, kidney, kin, kind, 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, screen, 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, sprain, stab, stamp, stance fatigue, stanza,
      statement, station, status, stave, stem, stew, stick, stick at,
      stickle, stirps, stock, stop to consider, straddle the fence,
      strain at, strain every nerve, strain for, straining, strains,
      stratum, streak, stress, stress and strain, stressfulness, stretch,
      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, tighten, 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, variety,
      varnish, vein, verse, vestige, vexation, warp, waver, way,
      weakness, wearifulness, weariness, weep, whitewash, wince, winnow,
      withdraw, work, worry, wound, wrench, yield, zeal