Strain
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( a.) To squeeze; to press closely.
(2): ( n.) Race; stock; generation; descent; family.
(3): ( n.) Hereditary character, quality, or disposition.
(4): ( n.) Rank; a sort.
(5): ( v. i.) To make violent efforts.
(6): ( n.) A cultural subvariety that is only slightly differentiated.
(7): ( a.) 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.
(8): ( a.) To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it.
(9): ( a.) To exert to the utmost; to ply vigorously.
(10): ( a.) 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.
(11): ( a.) To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship.
(12): ( a.) 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.
(13): ( n.) A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress.
(14): ( a.) To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
(15): ( a.) To urge with importunity; to press; as, to strain a petition or invitation.
(16): ( a.) 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.
(17): ( n.) 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.
(18): ( v. i.) To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.
(19): ( n.) The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
(20): ( n.) A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles; as, he lifted the weight with a strain; the strain upon a ship's rigging in a gale; also, the hurt or injury resulting; a sprain.
(21): ( n.) 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.
(22): ( n.) Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain.
King James Dictionary [2]
Strain, L This word retains its original signification, to stretch.
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 chords 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 this 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 stained through sand. 6. To sprain to injure by drawing or stretching.
Prudes decayd about may tack, strain their necks with looking back.
7. To make tighter to cause to bind closer.
To strain his fetters with a stricter care.
8. To force to constrain to make uneasy or unnatural.
His mirth is forced and strained.
1. To make violent efforts.
To build his fortune I will strain a little.
Straining with too weak a wing.
2. To be filtered. Water straining through sand becomes pure.
STRAIN, n.
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. 3. Style continued manner of speaking or writing as the genius and strain of the book of Proverbs. 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.
5. Turn tendency inborn disposition.
Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements.
6. Manner of speech or action.
Such take too high a strain at first.
7. Race generation descent.
He is of a noble strain. Not in use.
8. Hereditary disposition.
Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which propagated, spoil the strain of a nation. Not in use.
9. Rank character. Not in use.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary [3]
Matthew 23:24. Rather (From A Misprint) "strain out a gnat," as in Tyndale's, Cranmer's, the Bishops', and the Genevan Bible. An image from minute care in straining wines to clear them; ye are punctilious about trifles, but reckless about enormities.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
strān ( διυλίζω , diulı́zō , "to strain off," "to filter"): Matthew 23:24 , "Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel" The imagery is that of a drinking-vessel full of liquid, from which tiny impurities are carefully removed while immense masses of other impure matter ( Leviticus 11:4 ) are overlooked (compare Matthew 7:3 f). The first edition of the King James Version read the same as the Revised Version (British and American), but in the later editions a misprint converted "strain out" into "strain at," an error that has never been corrected.
