Definition of strain

• n. - Race; stock; generation; descent; family.
• n. - Hereditary character, quality, or disposition.
• n. - Rank; a sort.
• a. - 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.
• a. - To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it.
• a. - To exert to the utmost; to ply vigorously.
• a. - 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.
• a. - To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship.
• a. - 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.
• a. - To squeeze; to press closely.
• a. - To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
• a. - To urge with importunity; to press; as, to strain a petition or invitation.
• a. - 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.
• v. i. - To make violent efforts.
• v. i. - To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.
• n. - The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain.