strain

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   (biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups

   a new strain of microorganisms

2. 2
   noun

   nervousness resulting from mental stress

   The responsibilities were a constant strain.

3. 3
   noun

   difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension

   I endured the stresses and strains of life.

4. 4
   verb

   to exert much effort or energy

   straining our ears to hear

5. 5
   noun

   Race; lineage, pedigree.

   He is of a noble strain.

6. 6
   noun

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.

   There is a strain of madness in her family.

8. 8
   noun

   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.

   Yet Keats, though for so many years he has given nothing to the world, is understood to have devoted himself to the composition of an epic poem. Some passages of it have been communicated to the inner circle of his admirers, and impressed them as the loftiest strains that have been audible on earth since Milton’s days.

Etymology

From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), 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”).