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.
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.
To build his fortune I will strain a little. --Shak.
2. To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through
a sandy soil.
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.