Strain \Strain\, n. (Hort.) A cultural subvariety that is only slightly differentiated.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Strain \Strain\, n. [See Strene.]

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. ``The common strain.'' --Dryden.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Strain \Strain\ (str[=a]n), v. i.

1. To make violent efforts. ``Straining with too weak a wing.'' --Pope.

To build his fortune I will strain a little. --Shak.

2. To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Strain \Strain\, n.

1. The act of straining, or the state of being strained. Specifically:
   (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.

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.
   (b) (Mech. Physics) A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress. --Rankine.

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.

Their heavenly harps a lower strain began. --Dryden.

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.

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.

4. Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain.

Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements. --Hayward.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)