strain

I

v

1. tighten, draw tight or taut, stretch, extend, elongate, distend.

2. exert to the utmost, sharpen, whet, hone, make keen, sensitize; rack the brain, peel the eye, squint, listen hard, cock the ear, keep one's ears open.

3. sprain, wrench, wrick, twist, dislocate, injure, hurt, damage; impair, weaken, exhaust, tire, fatigue.

4. distort, warp, falsify, garble, pervert, stretch too far, change; exaggerate, hyperbolize.

5. force, drive, tax, overtax, burden, overburden; push to the limit, make ineffectual, negate, nullify; overreach, overshoot, overstep, impose upon, go or carry too far, overdo it.

6. draw off, rack, filter, percolate, sieve, bolt, screen, riddle; sift, winnow, refine, purify; pan, separate; drain, ooze, seep, trickle, flow.

7. clasp, hold, enfold, envelop, hug, embrace; press, squeeze, clutch, grasp, seize.

8. pull, tug, heave, haul; try hard, make a supreme effort, struggle, strive; labor, toil, moil, drudge, grub, grind; overwork, work night and day, Inf. go all out, Inf. give it one's all, drive oneself, push oneself, burn the midnight oil, burn the candle at both ends; work one's fingers to the bone, work like a dog, slave away, work like a slave, Inf. put one's back into it, keep one's shoulder to the wheel, keep one's nose to the grindstone; be under stress, be under pressure, be tense.

n

9. force, weight, heft; pull, stretch, draw, traction, tensity, tautness; extension, distension, elongation.

10. effort, exertion, struggle, laboriousness, plodding, Inf. plugging, pegging; industry, industriousness, operoseness, diligence; labor, toil, travail, sweat of one's brow, moil, drudgery, grind.

11. distortion, falsification, garbling, perversion, changing, warping; exaggeration, hyperbole, overstatement.

12. sprain, wrench, twist, dislocation, injury, damage; impairment, weakening, exhaustion, fatigue.

13. pressure, stress, tension, heat, drain, drag, charge, tax; burden, Archaic. burthen, cross, encumbrance, cumbrance, trouble, vexation; load, millstone, albatross; All Inf. squeeze, crunch, pinch, push.

14.(all of language) flow, stream, rush, burst, outburst, outpour, outpouring, deluge, torrent.

15.Music. theme, melody, tune, air; aria, song, descant, lay, ballad, carol; ditty, canzonet, cavatina, arietta.

16. stanza, verse, canto, passage or piece of poetry.

17. style, manner, tone, tenor, timbre, quality, cast, complexion; temper, humor, mood, spirit, vein; temperament, disposition, nature, character.

II

n

1. family, dynasty, house, clan, tribe, race, people; stock, stirps; offspring, young, children, progeny, seed, issue; successors, succession.

2. ancestry, ancestral line, lineage, descent, parentage, birth, derivation, extraction, filiation; heritage, background, past, history, roots; breed, bloodline, pedigree, stem, branch.

3. disposition, temperament, temper, grain; trait, characteristic; tendency, inclination, proclivity, propensity; proneness, subjectability, susceptibility, weakness, openness.

4. vein, streak, trace, mark, vesture; sign, indication, manifestation, evidence.

5. variety, kind, sort, type, description