strain
Forms
- Plural
- strains
- present (v1)
- strain
- past (v2)
- strained
- past participle (v3)
- strained
- present participle
- straining
- 3rd person singular
- strains
Definitions
1.A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
- They say this year's flu virus is a particularly virulent strain.
- European scientists have discovered a new strain of the virus that causes AIDS and linked it to gorillas, creating a mystery about when and how the first patient found to have the strain became infected.
2.Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.
- There is a strain of madness in her family.
3.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, etc.
- A baby gurgled, a photographer dropped her lens cap, and the strains of the U.S. Army Brass Quintet echoed off the murals depicting seminal moments in American history.
4.Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.
1.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.
2.To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force.
- The gale strained the timbers of the ship.
3.To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
4.To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable.
- He sweats, / Strains his young nerves.
- To build his fortune I will strain a little.
- Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3902
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-West Germanic *streun, from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)).