strain

See also străin

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /stɹeɪn/, SAMPA: /streIn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn

Etymology 1

Old English strēon, ġestrēon, from Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European *streu ( cognate with Latin strues (“heap”))

Noun

strain (plural strains)

1. (obsolete) Treasure.
2. (obsolete) The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.
3. (archaic) Race; lineage, pedigree.
4. Hereditary character, quality, or disposition.

   There is a strain of madness in her family.

5. A tendency or disposition
6. (literary) 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
7. (biology) A particular breed or race of animal, microbe etc.

   They say this year's flu virus is a particularly virulent strain.

8. (music) 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.
9. (rare) A kind or sort (of person etc.).

Quotations

• For examples of the usage of this term see the citations page.

Translations

Race; stock; generation; descent; family

Finnish: lajike (of plants), kanta (of virii/bacteria) French: (animals) race (fr) f., (plants) variété (fr) f. Polish: szczep m. Russian: порода (ru) (poróda) f. (animals), сорт (ru) (sort) m. (plants), штамм (ru) (štámm) m. (viruses)

Spanish: cepa f. (virus), variedad f. (plant) raza f. (race, breed) variedad f. (virus, breed)

Hereditary character, quality, or disposition

French: hérédité (fr) f.

Spanish: trazas (es) f.

variant of living species

Czech: kmen (cs) m. French: race (fr) f. German: Stamm (de) m.

Russian: род (ru) (rod) m., порода (ru) (poróda) f., (microorganism) штамм (ru) (štamm) m. Spanish: raza f. variedad f.

Rank; a sort

Spanish: clase (es) f. (rank), tipo (es) m. (sort)

Related terms

• strew

Etymology 2

Old French estreindre ( > French étreindre (“to grip”)), from Latin stringere (“to draw tight together, to tie”).

Verb

strain (third-person singular simple present strains, present participle straining, simple past and past participle strained)

1. (obsolete) To hold tightly, to clasp.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     So hauing said, her twixt her armes twaine / She straightly straynd, and colled tenderly [...].

2. To apply a force or forces to by stretching out.

   Relations between the United States and Guatemala traditionally have been close, although at times strained by human rights and civil/military issues.

3. To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable.

   Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Thus my plight was evil indeed, for I had nothing now to burn to give me light, and knew that 'twas no use setting to grout till I could see to go about it. Moreover, the darkness was of that black kind that is never found beneath the open sky, no, not even on the darkest night, but lurks in close and covered places and strains the eyes in trying to see into it.

4. To tighten (the strings of a musical instrument); to uplift (one’s voice).
5. To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander

Translations

to stretch too far

Dutch: overstrekken (nl) Finnish: venäyttää

Italian: slogare (it) Spanish: elongar

to apply a force

Dutch: forceren (nl) Finnish: rasittaa, kuormittaa

Italian: tendere (it), tirare (it), forzare (it) Korean: 당기다 (danggida)

to tighten the strings

Dutch: aantrekken (nl), aanspannen (nl) Finnish: kiristää (fi)

Korean: 당기다 (danggida), 켕기다 (kenggida)

to separate

Catalan: colar (ca) Dutch: scheiden (nl), afscheiden (nl), zeven (nl) Finnish: siivilöidä (fi) Italian: colare (it), passare (it), scolare (it)

Korean: 거르다 (georeuda) Portuguese: coar (pt) n. Spanish: colar (es), tamizar (es)

Noun

strain (countable and uncountable; plural strains)

1. The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
2. A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles.

   He lifted the weight with a strain

   the strain upon the sailboat's rigging

3. An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain.
   • 2011 April 11, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 3 - 0 Man City”, BBC Sport:

     Dirk Kuyt sandwiched a goal in between Carroll's double as City endured a night of total misery, with captain Carlos Tevez limping off early on with a hamstring strain that puts a serious question mark over his participation in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at Wembley.

4. (uncountable) (engineering) The amount by which a material deforms under stress or force, given as a ratio of the deformation to the initial dimension of the material and typically symbolised by ε is termed the engineering strain. The true strain is defined as the natural logarithm of the ratio of the final dimension to the initial dimension.
5. (obsolete) The track of a deer.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 145:

     When they have shot a Deere by land, they follow him like bloud-hounds by the bloud, and straine, and oftentimes so take them.

Anagrams

• instar, sartin, trains