strain 
5. To drip; ooze; filter; drain; flow; issue: as, 
water x/niiiiini/ through sund becomes pure. 
Then, in the Deserts dry and barren sand, 
From flinty Rocks doth plentious Rivers .-.-train. 
.syivirfcr, tr. of Du liartas's Triumph of faith, iii. 18. 
To strain at, to strive after ; endeavor to reach or ob- 
tain. 
I do not strain at the position. 
Shak., T. and C., iii. 3. 112. 
To strain at a gnat, a typographical error found in the 
authorized version (Miit. xxiii. 24) for strain out a ynat, 
the phrase found in Tyndale's and C'overdale's and other 
versions. See def. 11, above, and quotation there. 
Strain 1 (stran), . [< strain^, r. In some uses 
(def. 7), cf. strain 2 .'] If. Stretch; extent; 
pitch. 
If it did infect my blood with joy, 
Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride. 
Shak., 2 Hen. IV., iv. 5. 171. 
May our Minerva 
Answer your hopes, unto their largest strain ! 
B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, Ind. 
2. Stretching or deforming force or pressure; 
violence. [This use of the word, while permissible 
in literature, is incorrect in mechanics. The strain 
is not the force, but the deformation produced by the 
force.] 
A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the af- 
fections. Oeorye Eliot, Daniel Deronda, XT. 
3. Tense or constrained state or condition; 
tension ; great effort. 
A dismal wedding ! every ear at strain 
Some sign of things that were to be to gain. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, II. 814. 
Whether any poet . . . has exerted a greater variety of 
powers with less strain and less ostentation. Landor. 
4. In mech., a definite change in the shape or 
size of a solid body setting up an elastic re- 
sistance, or stress, or exceeding the limit of 
elasticity . The deformation of a fluid is not commonly 
called a strain. The word, which had previously been ill- 
deflned, was made a scientific and precise term in this 
sense by Rankine in 1850. Thomson and Tait, in their 
"Treatise on Natural Philosophy," extend the term to de- 
formationsof liquid masses, and even of groupsof points; 
and Tait subsequently extends it to any geometrical fig- 
ure, so that it becomes a synonym of deformation. 
Fresnel made the very striking discovery that glass and 
other simply refracting bodies are rendered doubly re- 
fracting when in a state of strain. To this Brewster added 
the observation that the requisite strain might be pro- 
duced by unequal heating instead of by mechanical stress. 
Tait, Light, 292. 
In this paper the word strain will be used to denote 
the change of volume and figure constituting the devia- 
tion of a molecule of a solid from that condition which it 
preserves when free from the action of external forces. 
Rankine, Axes of Elasticity (1855). 
A strain is any definite alteration of form or dimensions 
experienced by a solid. ... If a stone, a beam, or a mass 
of metal in a building, or in a piece of framework, becomes 
condensed or dilated in any direction, or bent, or twisted, 
or distorted in any way, it is said to experience a strain. 
W. Thomson, Mathematical Theory of Elasticity (ia>6). 
5. A stretching of the muscles or tendons, giv- 
ing rise to subsequent pain and stiffness ; 
sprain; wrench; twist. 6. A permanent de- 
formation or injury of a solid structure. 7. 
Stretch ; flight or burst, as of imagination, elo- 
quence, or song. Specifically (a) A poem ; a song ; 
a lay. 
All unworthy of thy nobler strain. 
Scott, L. of theL., I., Int. 
(6) Tune ; melody. 
I was all ear, 
And took in strains that might create a soul 
Under the ribs of death. Milton, Comus, 1. 561. 
In sweet Italian Strains our Shepherds sing. 
Congreve, Opening of the Queen's Theatre, Epil. 
(c) In a stricter sense, in music, a section of a piece which 
is more or less complete in itself. In written music the 
strains are often marked by double bars. 
An Cynthia had but seen me dance a strain, or do but 
one trick, I had been kept in court. 
B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, iv. 1. 
(d) Tone ; key ; style or manner of speech or conduct. 
The third [sort] is of such as take too high a strain at 
the first. Bacon, Youth and Age (ed. 1887). 
That sermon is in a strain which I believe has not been 
heard in this kingdom. Burke, Rev. in France. 
(e) Mood ; disposition. 
Henry . . . said, " I am come, young ladies, in a very 
moralizing strain, to observe that our pleasures in this 
world are always to be paid for." 
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, xxvi. 
Axes of a homogeneous strain, three straight lines of 
particles perpendicular to one another both before and 
after the strain. Composition Of strains. See compo- 
sition of displacements, under composition. Concurrent 
stress and strain. See concurrent. Homogeneous or 
uniform strain, a strain which leaves every straight line 
of particles straight, and every pair of parallel lines paral- 
lel. Longitudinal strain. See longitudinal. Normal 
plane of a homogeneous strain, one of three planes 
each containing two of the three axes. There is gener- 
ally only one such system of planes through each point of 
the body. - Orthogonal strain, (a) Relatively to a stress, 
a strain which neither does nor uses work by virtue of that 
stress, (b) Relatively to another strain, a strain orthogo- 
nal to a stress perfectly concurrent to the other strain. 
5077 
Principal Strain. Samv as prinrijml tttrain-tifj)e (which 
see, under strain-type). - Pure strain, a homogeneous 
strain which lines not rotate any axis of the strain. Sim- 
ple Strain, any one of a number of strains i-um-i-ived as 
inili-priuli'iit ruMipoiK-nts uf other strains which they are 
ciiiplnyi-d In define. The phrase siinjjle strain has no 
ill-Unite meaning, but simple JonffitwnnaJt ^i-uin. *iti<jiif 
tangential strtttn, siiujtlc tthcariny strain, etc., mean .-iirh 
strains existing nut as cimiponrnts im-rel), lint as resul- 
tants. Thus, if a li.-n is elongated without any transverse 
ciintniclion or expansion, there is a X//H/V. ln titudinal 
^truni In tin- duration of the elongation. A siwjile tan- 
!K'nli(fl strain is a himm^iMiKills shain in which ;ill the 
particles are displaced parallel to one plane. Strain- 
ellipsoid. See ellipsoid. To heave a Strain. See heave. 
Type of a strain. See (>//. 
strain- (stran), ii. [An altered form, due appar. 
to confusion with strain! , i t o f what would be 
reg. utreen; < ME. streen, strene, xtren, earlier 
streoii. istrron, race, stock, generation, < AS. 
gestriiin. <i< xlrion, gain, wealth (= OS. i/ixlriniii. 
= OHG. gixtrittiii, gain, property, wealth, busi- 
ness) ; appar. confused in ME. with the related 
noun, ME. strend, gtrynd, strand, < AS. strynel, 
race, stock ; < strednan, strynan = OHG. striit- 
nan, beget, gestrednan, get, acquire.] 1. Race; 
stock; generation; descent; hence, family 
blood; quality or line as regards breeding; 
breed ; a race or breed ; a variety, especially an 
artificial variety, of a domestic animal, strain 
indicates the least recognizable variation from a given 
stock, or the ultimate modification to which an animal 
has been subjected. But since. such variation usually 
proceeds by insensible degrees, the significance of strain 
grades into that of breed, race, or variety. 
Bountce comth al of God, nat of the streen 
Of which they been engendred and ybore. 
Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, 1. 101. 
O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain, 
Young man, thou couldst not die more honourable. 
Shak., J. C., v. 1. 59. 
The ears of a cat vary in shape, and certain strains, in 
England, inherit a pencil like tuft of hairs, above aquarter 
of an inch in length, on the tips of then* ears. 
Darwin, Var. of Animals and Plants, i. 
2. Hereditary or natural disposition; turn; 
tendency; character. 
Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain. 
Shak., Lear, v. 3. 40. 
And here I shall not restrain righteousness to the par- 
ticular virtue of justice, but enlarge it according to the 
genius and strain of the book of the Proverbs. Tittoteon. 
3. Sort; kind; style. 
Let man learn a prudence of a higher strain. 
Emerson, Essays, 1st ser., p. 214. 
4. Trace; streak. 
With all his merit there was a strain of weakness in his 
character. Bancroft, Hist. Const, II. 6. 
5. The shoot of a tree. Halliwell (under strene). 
[Prov. Eng.] 6f. The track of a deer. 
When they haue shot a Deere by land, they follow him 
like blond-hounds by the bloud, and straine, and often- 
times so take them. Capt. John Smith, Works, I. 134. 
strain 3 ! (stran), v. t. [An aphetic form of dis- 
train.'] To distrain. 
When my lord refused to pay the two shillings, Mr. 
Knightly charged the constable to strain two shillings' 
worth of goods. Court and Times of Charles I., I. 58. 
strainable (stra'na-bl), a. [Early mod. E. 
streinable, streynable; < strain^ + -able.~\ If. 
Constraining; compelling; violent. 
This yere the Duke of Burgon, . . . with his xii. M. 
men, was dryuen in to Englond, with a ferse streynable 
wynde, in ther selynge towarde Spayn. 
Arnold's Chron. (1502), p. xliii. 
2. Capable of being strained, 
strainablyt (stra'na-bli), adv. [Early mod. E. 
streinablie ; < strainable + -fy 2 .] Violently; 
fiercely. 
The wind . . . droue the game so streiiutblie amongest 
the tents and cabins of the Saxons, that the fire ... in- 
creased the feare amongst the soulddiors wonderf.ullie. 
HoKnshed, Hist. Scotland, p. 95. 
Strained 1 (strand), p. a. [< strain! + -ed 1 .] 
Forced; carried beyond proper limits: as, a 
strained interpretation of a law. 
strained 2 (strand), a. [< strain? + -erf 2 .] Of 
this or that strain or breed, as an animal. 
Strainer (stra'ner), n. [< ME. streynour, stren- 
youre; < strain^- + -er 1 .] 1. One who or that 
which strains. 2. A stretcher or tightener: as, 
a strainer for wire fences. 3. Any utensil for 
separating small solid particles from the liquid 
that contains them, either to preserve the solid 
objects or to clarify the liquid, or for both pur- 
poses. 
Item, j. dressyng knyfe, j. fyre schowle, ij. treys, j. 
streynour. Paston Letters, I. 490. 
4. In carriage-building : (a) A reinforcing strip 
or button at the back of a panel. (6) Canvas 
glued to the back of a panel to prevent warp- 
ing or cracking. Also called stretcher Strainer 
of Hippocrates. Same as Hippocrates s sleeve (which 
see, under sleevel). 
strait 
Strainer-vine (stra'ner-vin), . The sponge- 
gourd, l.iiffn 111 iilinii/iilii. Mini otlirr species: so 
railed from the use of the fibrous network con- 
tained in its fruit for straining palm-wine. 
Straining (stra'niug), . [Verbal n. of strain^, 
r.] In snililli i (/, leather, canvas, orother fabric 
drawn over a saddle to form a base for the seat- 
ing. It is put on the saddle with a tool called artri/" 
Jiirk, tin: fabric b;i\iu^ tlrist been stretchi-il un a inaclihir 
Milled il tlrninnii-f-l Also calli-il flriiiia'ii : i-li-iilli: r. 
Cross- straining, canvas or webbing drawn transversely 
over the first straining. 
straining-beam (stra'ning-bem), n. In aqueen- 
post roof, a horizontal beam uniting the tops of 
the two queen-posts, and act int.' as a tie-rod to 
resist the thrust of the roof : a straining-piece. 
If a similar beam is placed on the main tie-roil, between 
the bases of the posts, it is called a straining sill. 
straining-leather (stra'ning-leTH'er), n. In 
xiiilil/i-i-i/, same as xlriiiinmi. 
Straining-piece (stra'ning-pes), . Same as 
Xtl'flil<in<f-l>l ft HI . 
straining-sill (stra'ning-sil), n. See straiiiiny- 
lii'iim. 
Strain-normal (strau'uor'mal), . A normal 
of a homogeneous strain. 
strain-sheet (stran'shet), . In bridge-l>i/ihl- 
iiif/, a skeleton drawing of a truss or other part 
of a bridge, with the calculated or computed 
greatest strain to which it will be subjected an- 
notated at the side of each member, in making 
the actual working-drawings, the respective members are 
drawn to a size sufficient to sustain the stresses so marked 
on the sheet multiplied by a certain predetermined "fac- 
tor of safety." Also called stress-sheet. 
Straintt (strant), H. [< OF. estrainte, estreinte, 
fern, of estraint, F. etrcint, pp. of OF. estraindre, 
F. e'treindre, strain : see strain 1 , v., and cf . re- 
straint, constraint.'] A violent stretching or ten- 
sion; a strain; pressure; constraint. 
Uppon his iron coller griped fast, 
That with the strain! his wesand nigh he brast. 
Spenser, F. Q., V. ii. 1*. 
strain-type (stran'tip), n. The type of a strain. 
Principal strain-type, one of six strain-types such 
that, when the homogeneous elastic solid to which they 
belong is homogeneously strained in any way, the poten- 
tial energy of the elasticity is expressed by the sum of the 
products of the squares of the components of the strain 
expressed in terms of these strain-types, each multiplied 
by a determinate coefficient. 
Strait 1 (strat), a. and n. [Early mod. E. also 
straight, streight, streit, etc. ; < ME. strait, strayt, 
straite, strayte, streit, streyt, streite, also some- 
times strait/lit, < OF. estreit, estrait (F. Strait), 
narrow, strict (as a noun, a narrow passage of 
water), = Pr. estreit = Sp. estrecho = Pg. es- 
treito = It. strctto, narrow, strict, < L. strictus, 
pp. of stringere, draw tight : see strain 1 , strin- 
gent. Cf. strict, which is a doublet of strait, 
the one being directly from the L., the other 
through OF. and ME. The word strait 1 , former- 
ly also spelled straight, has been more or less 
confused with the diff. word straight 1 , which 
was sometimes spelled strait.'] I. a. 1. Nar- 
row ; having little breadth or width. 
Egypt is a long Contree ; but it is strei/t, that Is to seye 
narow ; for the! may not enlargen it toward the Desert, 
for defaute of Watre. Mandeville, Travels, p. 45. 
Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth 
unto life, and few there be that find it. Mat. vii. 14. 
Britons seen, all flying 
Through a strait lane. Shalt., Cymbeline, v. 8. 7. 
2. Confined; restricted; limited in space or 
accommodation; close. 
Ther was swich congregacionn 
Of peple, and eek so streit of herbergage, 
That they ne founde as much as o cotage 
In which they hothe myghte ylogged be. 
Chaucer, Nun's Priest's Tale, 1. 169. 
And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold 
now. the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for 
us. 2 Ki. vi. 1. 
3f. Of time, short ; scant. 
If thi nede be greet & thi tyme streite, 
Than go thi silf therto & worche an houswijfes brayde. 
Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 41. 
4f. Tight. 
You rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, 
and in your strait strossers. Shale., Hen. V., 111. 7. 57. 
He [man] might see that a strait glove will come more 
easily on with use. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, II. 295. 
I denounce against all strait Lacing, squeezing for a 
Shape. Congreve, Way of the World, iv. 5. 
5f. Close, (a) Near; intimate; familiar. 
He, forgetting all former injuries, had received that 
naughty Plexirtus into a strai'i/ht degree of favour, his 
goodness being as apt to be deceived as the other's craft 
was to deceive. Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, 11. (LaUtam.) 
(6) Strict ; careful. 
