strain

== English == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /stɹeɪn/ Rhymes: -eɪn === Etymology 1 === 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”). ==== Noun ==== strain (plural strains) (archaic) Race; lineage, pedigree. (biology) A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one. Coordinate terms: cultivar, quasispecies, variety (figurative) Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition. Synonyms: propensity, proneness (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. Synonyms: theme, motive, manner, style 2024, Christa Case Bryant, As US marks 9/11, a divided Congress unites to honor 13 fallen in Afghanistan, in: The Christian Science Monitor, September 11, 2024 A baby gurgled, a photographer dropped her lens cap, and the strains of the U.S. Army Brass Quintet echoed off the murals depicting seminal moments in American history. Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) (rare) A kind or sort (of person etc.). (obsolete) Treasure. (obsolete) The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Related terms ===== strew ===== Translations ===== === Etymology 2 === From Middle English straynen, streinen, streynen, from Old French estreindre (whence French étreindre (“to grip”)), from Latin stringō (“to draw tight together, to tie”). ==== Verb ==== strain (third-person singular simple present strains, present participle straining, simple past and past participle strained) (transitive, obsolete) To hold tightly, to clasp. (transitive) To apply a force or forces to by stretching out. (transitive) To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force. (transitive) To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam. (ambitransitive) To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable. (transitive) To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning. (transitive) To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander. (intransitive) To percolate; to be filtered. (transitive) To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain. (transitive) To urge with importunity; to press. (transitive) To hug somebody; to hold somebody tightly. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Translations ===== ==== Noun ==== strain (countable and uncountable, plural strains) The act of straining, or the state of being strained. 1832, Charles Stewart Drewry (A.M.I.C.E.), A memoir on suspension bridges, page 183: If the Menai Bridge, for instance, were loaded at that rate, the entire strain on the main chains would be about 2000 tons ; while the chains containing 260 square inches of iron would bear, at 9 tons per square inch, 2340 tons, without stretching ... A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles. An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain. (uncountable, engineering) A dimensionless measure of object deformation either referring to engineering strain or true strain. Coordinate terms: stress, deformation, force, pressure (obsolete) The track of a deer. ===== Derived terms ===== ===== Descendants ===== → Irish: straidhn ===== Translations ===== ==== Related terms ==== === Etymology 3 === 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”). ==== Verb ==== strain (third-person singular simple present strains, present participle straining, simple past and past participle strained) (obsolete) To beget, generate (of light), engender, copulate (both of animals and humans), lie with, be born, come into the world. === Anagrams === tairns, trains, Sartin, sartin, Tarins, santir, instar, rinsta, Trains, tarins, atrins, starin'