strain.
Race; lineage, pedigree.
Meaning & usage
Race; lineage, pedigree.
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.
Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.
There is a strain of madness in her family.
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.
Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.
A kind or sort (of person etc.).
Treasure.
The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.
Where this word comes from
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”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).
To hold tightly, to clasp.
To apply a force or forces to by stretching out.
to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship
Relations between the United States and Guatemala traditionally have been close, although at times strained by human rights and civil/military issues.
To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force.
The gale strained the timbers of the ship.
To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
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.
To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning.
to strain the law in order to convict an accused person
To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander.
To percolate; to be filtered.
water straining through a sandy soil
To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
To urge with importunity; to press.
to strain a petition or invitation
To make great demands on something.
a story that strains credulity
Taking on more debt would strain our resources to the limit.
To hug somebody; to hold somebody tightly.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English straynen, streinen, streynen, from Old French estreindre (whence French étreindre (“to grip”)), from Latin stringō (“to draw tight together, to tie”).
The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles.
he jumped up with a strain
the strain upon the sailboat's rigging
An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain.
A dimensionless measure of object deformation either referring to engineering strain or true strain.
The track of a deer.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English straynen, streinen, streynen, from Old French estreindre (whence French étreindre (“to grip”)), from Latin stringō (“to draw tight together, to tie”).
To beget, generate (of light), engender, copulate (both of animals and humans), lie with, be born, come into the world.
A man straineth, liveth, then dieth.
Man, look at that cat straining that kitty.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English strenen (“to beget, father, procreate”), from Old English strēonan, strīenan, strȳnan (“to beget, generate, gain, acquire”), from Proto-West Germanic *striunijan, from Proto-Germanic *striunijaną (“to furnish, decorate, acquire”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.