distrain
English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French destraindre, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin distringere (“to pull asunder, stretch out, engage, hinder, molest, (deprecated template usage) [etyl] 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
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /dɪˈstɹeɪn/
- Rhymes: -eɪn
- Hyphenation: dis‧train
Verb
distrain (third-person singular simple present distrains, present participle distraining, simple past and past participle distrained)
- (obsolete) To squeeze, press, embrace; to constrain, oppress.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- But when he heard her answeres loth, he knew / Some secret sorrow did her heart distraine […]
- 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XII, xii:
- Thus spake the Prince, and gently 'gan distrain / Now him, now her, between his friendly arms.
- (law, transitive, obsolete) To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property.
- to distrain a person by his goods and chattels
- (law, intransitive) To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt.
- (obsolete) To pull off, tear apart.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- For that same net so cunningly was wound, / That neither guile, nor force might it distraine.
Synonyms
- (to seize somebody's property in place of, or to force payment of a debt) distress
Derived terms
Derived terms
Translations
To seize somebody's property in place of payment of a debt
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Further reading
- “distrain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “distrain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “distrain”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪn
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
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- en:Law
- English transitive verbs
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- English intransitive verbs