Strain

/stɹeɪn/ · noun

Meaning

(archaic) Race; lineage, pedigree..

Definitions by Sense

1. (archaic) Race; lineage, pedigree.
2. (biology) A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
3. (figurative) Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.
4. (music, poetry) 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.
5. Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.
6. (rare) A kind or sort (of person etc.).
7. (obsolete) Treasure.
8. (obsolete) The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.

Example Sentences

He is of a noble strain.

[…] with animals and plants a cross between different varieties, or between individuals of the same variety but of another strain, gives vigour and fertility to the offspring; […]

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.

There is a strain of madness in her family.

Intemperance and Luſt breed infirmities and diſeaſes, which, being propagated, ſpoil the Strain of a Nation.

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.

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.

Synonyms for strain

Antonyms for strain

Related Words

Word Forms

• strains
• straining
• strained

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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