distrain

English

Etymology

From Old French destraindre, from Latin distringere (“to pull asunder, stretch out, engage, hinder, molest, Medieval Latin also compel, coerce as by exacting a pledge by a fine or by imprisonment”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /dɪˈstɹeɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Verb

distrain (third-person singular simple present distrains, present participle distraining, simple past and past participle distrained)

1. (obsolete) To squeeze, press; to constrain, oppress.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VII:

     But when he heard her answeres loth, he knew / Some secret sorrow did her heart distraine [...].

2. (law, transitive, obsolete) To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property.
3. (law, intransitive) To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt.
4. (obsolete) To pull off, tear apart.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.xii:

     For that same net so cunningly was wound, / That neither guile, nor force might it distraine.

Synonyms

• distress

Derived terms

• distrainable
• distrainee
• distrainer
• distrainment
• distrainor
• distraint

Translations

To seize somebody's property in place of payment of a debt

Bulgarian: налагам запор (bg)

German: pfänden (de)

External links

• distrain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• distrain in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• distrain at OneLook Dictionary Search