STRAIN, v.t. [L. This word retains its original signification, to stretch.]

1. A violent effort; a stretching or exertion of the limbs or muscles, or of any thing else.
2. An injury by excessive exertion, drawing or stretching. – Grew.
3. Style; continued manner of speaking or writing; as, the genius and strain of the Book of Proverbs. – Tillotson. So we say, poetic strains, lofty strains.
4. Song; note; sound; or a particular part of a tune. Their heavenly harps a lower strain began. – Dryden.
5. Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements. Hayward.
6. Manner of speech or action. Such take too high a strain at first. – Bacon.
7. Race; generation; descent. He is of a noble strain. [Not in use.] – Shak.
8. Hereditary disposition. Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which propagated, spoil the strain of a nation. [Not in use.] – Tillotson.
9. Rank; character. [Not in use.] – Dryden.

1. To make violent efforts. To build his fortune I will strain a little. Shak. Straining with too weak a wing. Pope.
2. To be filtered. Water straining through sand become pure.

1. To stretch; to draw with force; to extend with great effort; as, to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship; to strain the cords of an instrument.
2. To cause to draw with force, or with excess of exertion; to injure by pressing with too much effort. He strained his horses or his oxen by overloading them.
3. To stretch violently or by violent exertion; as, to strain the arm or the muscles.
4. To put to the utmost strength. Men in desperate cases will strain themselves for relief.
5. To press or cause to pass through some porous substance; to purify or separate from extraneous matter by filtration; to filter; as, to strain milk. Water may be strained through sand. – Bacon. Arbuthnot.
6. To sprain; to injure by drawing or stretching. Prudes decay'd about may tack, / Strain their necks with looking back. – Swift.
7. To make tighter; to cause to bind closer. To strain his fetters with a stricter care. – Dryden.
8. To force; to constrain; to make uneasy or unnatural. His mirth is forced and strained. Denham.

1. Race; stock; generation; descent; family.
   
   

   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. 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.
   
   
   "To strain his fetters with a stricter care." Dryden.
3. To make violent efforts.
   
   
   "Straining with too weak a wing." Pope.

   To build his fortune I will strain a little. Shak.

4. The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
   
   
   Specifically: --

   (a)

5. A cultural subvariety that is only slightly differentiated.
6. Hereditary character, quality, or disposition.
   
   

   Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which, propogated, spoil the strain of nation. Tillotson.

7. To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it.
8. To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.
9. 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.

10. Rank; a sort.
    
    
    "The common strain." Dryden.
11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain.
    
    

    Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements. Hayward.

15. To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship.
16. 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.

17. To squeeze; to press closely.
    
    

    Evander with a close embrace
    Strained his departing friend. Dryden.

18. 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.

19. To urge with importunity; to press; as, to strain a petition or invitation.
    
    

    Note, if your lady strain his entertainment. Shak.

20. 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.