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Strain   /streɪn/   Listen
Strain

noun
1.
(physics) deformation of a physical body under the action of applied forces.
2.
Difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension.  Synonym: stress.  "He presided over the economy during the period of the greatest stress and danger"
3.
A succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence.  Synonyms: air, line, melodic line, melodic phrase, melody, tune.
4.
(psychology) nervousness resulting from mental stress.  Synonyms: mental strain, nervous strain.  "The mental strain of staying alert hour after hour was too much for him"
5.
A special variety of domesticated animals within a species.  Synonyms: breed, stock.  "He created a new strain of sheep"
6.
(biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups.  Synonyms: form, var., variant.
7.
Injury to a muscle (often caused by overuse); results in swelling and pain.
8.
The general meaning or substance of an utterance.  Synonym: tenor.
9.
An effortful attempt to attain a goal.  Synonyms: nisus, pains, striving.
10.
An intense or violent exertion.  Synonym: straining.
11.
The act of singing.  Synonym: song.



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"Strain" Quotes from Famous Books



... most energetick, impassioned, and highest strain."—Kirkham's Elocution, p. 66. "He has fallen into the most gross and vilest sort of railing."—Barclay's Works, iii, 261. "To receive that more general and higher instruction which the public affords."—District School, p. 281. "If the best things have the perfectest and best operations."—HOOKER: ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... toils through all, still trembling to be wrong: For fear some noble thoughts, like heavenly rebels, Should rise up in high treason to his brain, He sings, as the Athenian spoke, with pebbles In's mouth, lest Truth should stammer through his strain. But out of the long file of sonneteers There shall be some who will not sing in vain, And he, their Prince, shall rank among my peers,[307] And Love shall be his torment; but his grief Shall make an immortality of tears, And Italy shall hail him as the Chief ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... obey its latest strain— You tell me so. (To Richard.) But should it change its mind ...
— The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan - The 14 Gilbert And Sullivan Plays • William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan

... made her talk in a Strain so suitable to her Condition and Character. One sees in it the Expostulations of a slighted Lover, the Resentments of an injured Woman, and the Sorrows of an imprisoned Queen. I need not acquaint my Reader that this Princess was then under Prosecution for Disloyalty to the King's ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... impression upon the listener's mind—"Winston has grounds for his good opinion of himself. His character is unblemished—his principles and aims are excellent. Only"—relapsing hopelessly into the confidential strain in which most of the conference had been carried—"between ourselves, my dear Frederic, I am never quite easy with these patterns to the rest of human-kind. I should even prefer a tiny vein of depravity to ...
— At Last • Marion Harland

... half ill because he knew that he was grieving his father of whom he was devotedly fond, and the strain of trying to work while he was unhappy nearly destroyed him. The pictures that he exhibited at the Royal Academy were so poor that the commission declared they should not only be removed but that Hunt ought really to be forbidden ...
— Pictures Every Child Should Know • Dolores Bacon

... simple uniform and the well-known hat. The Emperor was alone. He took a fancy to walk a little; but there was no level ground on any side of the pavilion, which was surrounded by huge pieces of rock. Taking the arm of his companion, however, he began to converse in a cheerful strain. When Napoleon was about to retire to rest the servants found that one of the windows was open close to the bed: they barricaded it as well as they could, so as to exclude the air, to the effects of which the Emperor was very susceptible. Las Cases ascended to an ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... the windows. Apparently the place was a harmless rooming house of fairly good quality. Not a sign of Caroline Smith appeared even during the second day. By this time the nerves of the two watchers were shattered by the constant strain, and the monotonous view from the front window was beginning ...
— Ronicky Doone • Max Brand

... criminal like—at least Dave and Jim did. They'd start if a horse stumbled through the Bush, and expected to see a mounted policeman ride up at any moment and hear him ask questions. They had driven about thirty-five feet when, one Saturday afternoon, the strain became too great, and Dave and Jim got drunk. The spree lasted over Sunday, and on Monday morning they felt too shaky to come to work and had more drink. On Monday afternoon, Kullers, whose shift it was below, stuck his pick through the face of his drive into the wall of Dave's, about four ...
— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson

... against the netting from her under-water bow torpedo tube at an approximate range of 50 yards. As on former occasions, the missile was one of the old 16 inch pattern, but it was understood that the charge of gun cotton had been reduced to 87 lb., so that the net protection should not bear a greater strain than would be the case in actual hostilities. The torpedo, which was set to a depth of about 10 feet, struck the net in the middle and threw up an immense spout of water, but without getting to the ship, which was ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 601, July 9, 1887 • Various

... retirement within her house, communing with other intelligences. We said Mary had lost her mind; but that was difficult to believe, since no more wholesome type of womanhood had ever walked our streets. She was very tall, built on the lines of a beauty transcending our meagre strain. Nobody approved of those broad shoulders and magnificent arms. We said it was a shame for any girl to be so overgrown; yet our eyes followed her, delighted by the harmony of line and action. Then we whispered that she was as big as a moose, and that, if we had such arms, ...
— Tiverton Tales • Alice Brown

... Unrivalled for midsummer show. As this plant is of little value after its early flowering period is over, other annuals can be planted in the bed with it, to take its place. Set these plants about the middle of July, and when they begin to bloom pull up the Poppies. The Shirley strain includes some of the loveliest colors imaginable. Its flowers have petals that seem cut from satin. The large-flowered varieties are quite as ornamental as Peonies, as long as ...
— Amateur Gardencraft - A Book for the Home-Maker and Garden Lover • Eben E. Rexford

... her," said the nurse very quietly to Julia. "She has been so wrought up, the outburst will relieve the strain." ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis

... her mother's with her. Poor girl! poor girl! God grant it isn't her death-blow too. She has suffered too much under this long strain of anxiety." ...
— Taken Alive • E. P. Roe

... savage has killed somebody, Mr Reed," whispered Fitz, in a voice he did not know as his own; and he crouched rigidly there with the butt of his piece to his shoulder, aiming in the direction of the sounds, and with every nerve upon the strain. ...
— Fitz the Filibuster • George Manville Fenn

... all of these "wishes" can be traced to early childhood or to adolescence, which is a time of stress and strain and a period of great excitement. In childhood the boy often puts himself in his father's place; he wishes that he were grown like his father and could take his father's place, for then his mother would notice him ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... not heed the many eyes upon her beauty turned; One vision still oppressed her soul, one grief within her burned. The tones of holy minstrelsy, the solemn anthem strain, They were like voices in a ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 457 - Volume 18, New Series, October 2, 1852 • Various

... my fau't, nor any of our fau'ts; for, to tell you the thruth, we had so much to think and discoorse of last night, that it never sthruck me, good or bad. Indeed it was Bridget that put it first in my head, afther you wint out, an' thin it was too late. Ay, poor woman, the dacent strain was ever in her, the heaven's ...
— Phelim O'toole's Courtship and Other Stories • William Carleton

... if Pelby Smith had his own way. To be sure, we are not in circumstances to entertain much, conveniently, but for the sake of a firmer place in society, I am always willing to strain a point. As to Pelby, he has so little spirit that he would as soon be at the bottom of the social ladder as at the top. I can speak of it without impropriety to you, as you are his relation, not mine. He has been a perpetual drag and drawback upon me, but, ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... his life and have foreseen the end of that longing and those dreams, his weary spirit could still have borne the burden laid upon it, none may say. But buoyed up by that ever-present hope he faced the strain of his eternal watching with an unflinching courage, which may have been occasionally strengthened by a recollection which visited him, and the remarkable circumstances ...
— The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope v. I. • A. M. W. Stirling (compiler)

... strain in Christianity goes back to a time long before Jesus; it seems to have been inherent in the religious character of the Jews—that stubborn independence, that stiff-necked insistence on the right of a man to interview God for himself and to find out what ...
— The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition • Upton Sinclair

... we introduced a tolerably credible and possibly true though partly erring myth, which was also a hymn in honour of Love, who is your lord and also mine, Phaedrus, and the guardian of fair children, and to him we sung the hymn in measured and solemn strain. ...
— Phaedrus • Plato

... feel sure of myself," he explained. "Can you bear the strain of waiting around a little longer, Laura? I mustn't forget that ...
— Initials Only • Anna Katharine Green

... deplorable. It is unjust to the followers who support Base Ball. It is also unjust, in a small way, to the club which has to play two or more games on its opponent's field. Players when away from their home grounds, in a fall series, are more or less under a nervous strain. If there was confusion, inconvenience and difficulty in a local series as a result of a tie game, the folly of the arrangement must appear more absurd when towns like New York and Boston are involved. Dates should alternate, tie ...
— Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913 • John B. Foster

... broad a use of the word "religion" would be inconvenient, however defensible it might remain on logical grounds. There are trifling, sneering attitudes even toward the whole of life; and in some men these attitudes are final and systematic. It would strain the ordinary use of language too much to call such attitudes religious, even though, from the point of view of an unbiased critical philosophy, they might conceivably be perfectly reasonable ways of looking upon ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James

... I! Another question I've got to ask is: Who writes those books? The educated folks. The masters!" Rybin spoke curtly and decisively, his voice grew gruffer and gruffer, and his bearded face reddened as with the strain of exertion. "Now, then, the masters write the books and distribute them. But the writings in the books are against these very masters. Now, tell me, why do they spend their money and their time to stir up ...
— Mother • Maxim Gorky

... must not only submit to be sense-enthralled, the very innermost spirit of a man is to be deliberately resigned to the tyranny of a smooth brow and a soft eye. Music, which grows rampant with passion, speaks in all its tones of woman: as long as the strain lasts we are in a frenzy of love, though it is not very clear with whom, and happily the delirium ends the moment the strings of the violin have ceased to vibrate. What subject has the painter worth a rush but the beauty of woman? We gaze for ever on the charming face ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 331, May, 1843 • Various

... "There is the opening strain of its music; in that chord is sounded the keynote which is never lost till the plaintive melody dies away at the song's end. All that follows is that ...
— The Song of our Syrian Guest • William Allen Knight

... trying kind of husband—bone egoistic. A parson of that type has no chance at all. Every mortal thing he has to do or say helps him to develop his worst points. The wife of a man like that's no better than a slave. She began to show the strain of it at last; though she's the sort who goes on till she snaps. It took him four years to realize. Then, the question was, what were they to do? He's a very High Churchman, with all their feeling about marriage; but luckily his pride was wounded. Anyway, they separated two years ago; and there ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... slight link of circumstance which may the better enable us to grasp it. The development of disillusion, the melancholy progress of change, is finely indicated in the successive stages of this lyric sequence, from the first clear strain of believing love (shaken already by a faint tremor of fear), through gradual alienation and inevitable severance, to the final resolved parting. This poem is worthy of notice as the only one in which Browning has employed the sequence form; almost the only instance, ...
— An Introduction to the Study of Browning • Arthur Symons

... this the Lieutenant-Governor was obliged to deal with a mob, which grew out of the meanness of importers, whose selfish course proved to be a great strain on the forbearing policy of the popular leaders. The merchants on the Tory side, among whom were two of Hutchinson's sons, persisted in importing goods; and he writes, with a good deal of pride, as though it were meritorious, that since the agreement was formed these two sons had imported two ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 • Various

... a breath, And on all the men of Vaiau imprecate instant death; And tempt her kings—for Vaiau was a rich and prosperous land, And flatter—for who would attempt it but warriors mighty of hand? And change in a breath again and rise in a strain of song, Invoking the beaten drums, beholding the fall of the strong, Calling the fowls of the air to come and feast on the dead. And they held the chin in silence, and heard her, and shook the head; For they knew the men of Taiarapu famous in battle and ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 14 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... less liable will the writer be to this fault; but not even Shakespeare's power of throwing himself into his characters prevents many of his different personages from talking philosophy in the same strain and in a ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... the weight of the superstructure, and the first signs of weakness begin to show themselves in the oldest and lowest portion of the whole. Carefully repaired, when the weakness is noticed at all, it can bear a little more, and again a little, but at last the breaking strain is reached, the tall building totters, the highest pinnacles topple over, then the upper story collapses, and the end comes either in the crash of a great falling or, by degrees, in the irreparable ruin of ages. But when all is over, and wind and weather and time have swept away what they can, ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford

... toward the rocky ledge, against which they leaned, gazing with fearsome eyes at the rising waters, on which the lantern-light shone fitfully, and almost holding their breaths at times, so great was the strain, the boy ranchers waited—for what they scarcely knew. And yet ...
— The Boy Ranchers in Camp - or The Water Fight at Diamond X • Willard F. Baker

... living in London (at the Courier office, 348, Strand), and in the midst of his second course of lectures, that the intercourse was renewed—or rather it is there that A House of Letters enables us to pick it up. We find him then writing in this kind of strain to Matilda:— ...
— In a Green Shade - A Country Commentary • Maurice Hewlett

... would. But you needn't get red in the face and strain your biler just because I said that. I ain't finding fault with Heman; I'm only tellin' you. He's proud, as I ...
— Cy Whittaker's Place • Joseph C. Lincoln

... them in water, chop the stalks and put them on the fire with a piece of bacon, a large onion cut up, and pepper and salt; add two quarts of water, boil them till the stalks are quite soft, then pulp them through a sieve, and strain the water to it, which must be put back in the pot; put into it a chicken cut up, with the tops of asparagus which had been laid by, boil it until these last articles are sufficiently done, thicken with flour, butter and milk, and serve ...
— The Virginia Housewife • Mary Randolph

... physician of standing and authority. Not otherwise have asserted various reform-doctors who are not supposed to move in the first medical circles. The value of any approximate decision of the vegetarian question can hardly be overestimated. There are thousands of families of very moderate means who strain every nerve to feed their children upon beef and mutton,—and this with the tacit approval, or by the positive advice, of physicians in good repute. Can our children be brought up equally well upon potatoes and hasty-pudding? May ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 • Various

... old days. Look, sir, I wear the watch which you gave me when you went to India. Did you not tell me then to look over Clive and serve him if I could? Can't I serve him now?" and I went on further in this strain, asseverating with great warmth and truth that my wife's affection and my own were most sincere for both of them, and that our pride would be to be able to ...
— The Newcomes • William Makepeace Thackeray

... forced to follow landward too, for all they tried to stop and rest. The population was mostly employed getting the boats up as close to the houses as practice permitted, and the capstans were all a-creak with the strain; and one shrieked for a dab of lard, and got it, just as they passed. The man with Bessie and the anchor on his arms—for it was his—paused in his rotations with one elbow on his lever, and one ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... station was established somewhere on this hill, and that after fierce fighting in the bay the Danes captured and held the Char valley for some years. It is possible that many of the country people have a strain of the wild northern blood in their veins. Close to the church and the Coach and Horses Hotel, the unpretentious but comfortable hostelry on the left of the street, a lane leads to the coastguard station ...
— Wanderings in Wessex - An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter • Edric Holmes

... Poetry, whose strain divine The wondrous power of song displays, Her heart to thee, fair nymph, consign, Transported in ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... no sooner dead than the public press began to attack him, and while those private virtues were not denied him for which he had always been conspicuous, they enlarged in a strain of severe invective against his careless and expensive habits, his addiction to gambling; and above all they raked up the old story of Mrs. Clark and the investigation of 1809, and published many of his letters ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William - IV, Volume 1 (of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville

... truth, 'Tave," said Teddy, with quiet candour, "it wasn't for the salary. That about kept me in cigars and sunburn lotions. I was sent south by my doctor. 'Twas that right lung that was going to the bad on account of over-exercise and strain at polo and gymnastics. I needed climate and ozone and rest and things of ...
— Whirligigs • O. Henry

... been expected that this manner of treating the samurai would obtain universal approval. Already, too, the strain of constructive statesmanship had developed friction among the progressist leaders who had easily marched abreast for destructive purposes. They differed about the subject of a national assembly, some being inclined to attach more practical importance than others to the Emperor's coronation oath ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... fiddle under his chin and begins to play. At first the air is chant-like, and has a strain of melancholy, then it grows gayer and gayer, until it turns into a dance tune. The children first stand about Uncle Ned in a circle, listening. Then they begin to dance, with swaying bodies and cries of delight. Here and there ...
— Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People • Constance D'Arcy Mackay

... India's attempts to fence off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty Island in the Bay of Bengal prevents maritime boundary delimitation; Burmese Muslim refugees strain Bangladesh's ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... her studies and her efforts to obtain the proper clew by which she could in her own mind reduce the present political chaos to order, she found more than enough wherewith to fill her days. As always happened with her, the mental strain reacted upon her physical health, and her old enemies, depression of spirits and headaches, returned ...
— Mary Wollstonecraft • Elizabeth Robins Pennell

... figures available with regard to the health of women clerks generally. The common ailments are neuritis, anaemia, and nervous breakdown. Typing is also a strain on the eyesight and hearing. Miss Charlesworth says that in her experience it is the girls who are not suited for the work ...
— Women Workers in Seven Professions • Edith J. Morley

... little; brakes, springs, wheels, all parts of the furious cast-iron machine seemed to him tired of howling the deafening rhythmical gallop, and the vigorously rocked traveller could distinguish in the diminished uproar a strain of music, at first confused like a groan, then more distinct, but always the same cruel, haunting monotone—the fragment of a song that Maria once sang when they were both children. Suddenly a mournful and prolonged whistle ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... with the moral law—is of the greatest use, not only for fortifying the speculative reason, but also with respect to religion. In default of this, either the moral law is degraded from its holiness, being represented as indulging our convenience, or else men strain after an unattainable aim, hoping to gain absolute holiness of will, thus losing themselves in fanatical ...
— The World's Greatest Books—Volume 14—Philosophy and Economics • Various

... if it should come on to rain on these paper clothes? Would they not melt, and at a little strain would they not part?" ...
— Equality • Edward Bellamy

... The intercourse of Africa with Arabia and other parts of Asia has been so close and long-continued that it is impossible to-day to disentangle the blood relationships. Negro blood certainly appears in strong strain among the Semites, and the obvious mulatto groups in Africa, arising from ancient and modern mingling of Semite and Negro, has given rise to the term "Hamite," under cover of which millions of Negroids have ...
— The Negro • W.E.B. Du Bois

... said Christy. The order was repeated, and the reports were made known in the pilot-house. Sampson seemed to be testing the capacity of the engine, for he was doing his best in the matter of speed; but the Teaser behaved under the strain to which he subjected her as though she had been very ...
— Within The Enemy's Lines - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic

... night, retiring to darkness and thought, I pass her chamber door! In the morning again I behold the place where all that is heavenly rests! I endeavour after apathy. I labour to be senseless, stupid, an idiot! I strain to be dead to supreme excellence! But it is the stone of Sisyphus, and I am ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... immediately surrounded, and was overwhelmed with entreaties to sing again, for the "back slap" had been as diverting as it was unexpected, and she found it impossible to leave the piano without singing again. But she thought that one song in that strain was enough, though Mr. Gurney came over to her ...
— Miss Dexie - A Romance of the Provinces • Stanford Eveleth

... had suffered in consequence of those few days' strain of muscle and nerve, soon returned to their normal state in that peaceful retreat upon the grassy banks of the stream that is an ...
— My Friends the Savages - Notes and Observations of a Perak settler (Malay Peninsula) • Giovanni Battista Cerruti

... the end. With him throughout this long period of privation and suffering was his beautiful and courageous wife, whose comparatively early death, at the age of fifty-four, must to some extent be attributed to the strain and fatigue borne during these months of warfare. Sir Hugh seems to have almost worshipped his wife, for in his memoirs he is never weary ...
— Yorkshire—Coast & Moorland Scenes • Gordon Home

... strain so, dear," returned his sister, shaking her head. "It won't last if you do. You see this is ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington

... full apparently of bright anticipations and buoyant life. Sometimes a lamp gleam would fall through the plate-glass windows of some princely structure, where light forms of beauty, attired in fashion's garb, were flitting through the mazy dance or listening to music's enrapturing strain. As Guly walked on, noting the panorama of life which passed by him, he fell into a fit of musing from which he was unable to rouse himself, until they turned into another street, and Wilkins remarked quietly that it was the one in which Blanche lived. ...
— The Brother Clerks - A Tale of New-Orleans • Xariffa

... a romantic, not a tragic passion. It is the mood which follows the tragic mood. Shakespeare's creative life is like a Shakespearean play. It ends with an easing of the strain and ...
— William Shakespeare • John Masefield

... hand towards the engine, and Evan saw for himself what had happened. The main shaft on the port side had broken clean through. The sudden shifting of the strain had thrown the walking-beam out of plumb, and the connecting rods had snapped off and threshed wildly about. The ruin was complete, but fortunately, ...
— The Deaves Affair • Hulbert Footner

... this plank-like piece of wood, which is split with the grain to stand the great strain often imposed upon it, and never sawn at all, the toes are fastened by a leather strap. Another strap goes round the heel in a sort of loop fashion, securing the foot, but at the same time giving the heel full play. A special ski boot is worn over enormously ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

... started back; and a deep flush swept her face. For a few seconds she paused; at such a time a few succeeding seconds seem to lengthen in geometrical progression. The strain upon me, and, as I could easily see, on the Doctor ...
— The Jewel of Seven Stars • Bram Stoker

... who everyone was raving about last spring in London, (or was it last year?) his church is like a great temple, or public hall, and cost [pound symbol]180,000. Mr. Winthrop gave us his pew, so we were well placed, and as he is very rapid and not very loud, the strain to hear his discourse would have been very great if we had not been near. "In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh." Christ comes to us in many ways, and through the long ages of the Old Testament and Christian dispensations he has been continually shewing ...
— The British Association's visit to Montreal, 1884: Letters • Clara Rayleigh

... Petrarchan sweetness, nor Ercilla's tumultuous rhetoric. He has an individuality all his own, the moral purpose of the man is wedded to the poet's art in such wise that he strikes a note individual and completely new in Spanish literature—a note rarely heard in any literature till we catch its strain in the verses of ...
— Fray Luis de Leon - A Biographical Fragment • James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

... they impress us even if we know that they are not exactly true. She has pleasure in lively discussion, in which she willingly takes a playful, sometimes a familiar, tone; but always shows herself equal to the subject. From Elizabeth also we have some lines in verse, not exactly of a poetic strain, not very harmonious in expression, but full of high thoughts and resolves. Her letters are skilful but, owing to their allusions and antitheses, far from perspicuous products of reflection, although succinct and rich in matter. She was acquainted with the ...
— A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) • Leopold von Ranke

... settled it over his forehead. Another put his cigarette to his lips. Another picked up his coffeecup. A fourth, who was holding a flower, lifted it to his nose and smelt it. No one remained quite still. With the stranger's action a strain had been removed, a mental tension abruptly loosened, a sense of care let free in the room. Domini felt it acutely. The last few minutes had been painful to her. She sighed with relief at the cessation ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens

... is that of the editor of a magazine of general circulation. He manages a forum so much larger than the famous stadium at San Diego that the imagination is put to a strain to picture it. On the generally accepted assumption that each sold copy of a popular magazine eventually reaches an average of five persons, there is one forum in the magazine world of America which every ...
— If You Don't Write Fiction • Charles Phelps Cushing

... girl all through the evening; he really persecutes her. I'll introduce you to Miss Bowmore; and you will see how he looks at us for presuming to approach her. It's a great pity; she will never marry him. Arthur Bervie is a man in a thousand; but he's fast becoming a perfect bear under the strain on his temper. What's the matter? You don't seem to be ...
— Little Novels • Wilkie Collins

... remember ever having fainted in her life, yet for a moment after these words reached her, all around grew dark, and she was compelled to grasp the counter to keep from falling. The strain of the long night, coupled with such unexpected news proving she had arrived too late with her warning, served to daze her brain, to leave her utterly unable either to think or plan. The clerk, alarmed by the sudden pallor of her face, was at her side instantly, holding ...
— Beth Norvell - A Romance of the West • Randall Parrish

... powers, an added stress of duty, of energy, and of rectitude in conduct from which he may not shrink if he would be the gainer rather than the loser. Each discovery and each improved method of employing the beneficent forces of the natural world, brings with it a strain upon the moral nature of man which, if he stand it, well; but if he stand it not, then it shall ...
— Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century - Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World • Various

... to be Om. And there are very curious physical exercises; you have to hold your ear with one hand and your toes with the other, and you may strain yourself unless you do it properly. That was the general ...
— Queen Lucia • E. F. Benson

... went, that she liked him extremely, and protesting, that if he had birth and fortune to entitle him to match into such a family as our's, she knew no man she would sooner fix upon. I could not but smile to hear her talk in this lofty strain: but I was never much displeased with those harmless delusions that tend to ...
— The Vicar of Wakefield • Oliver Goldsmith

... strain of that confession, in which he had vented the anguish and dreams of many months, Rafael leaned against the trunk of an old orange-tree. Leonora stood in front of him, listening to his words, with head lowered, making marks on the ground with the ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... need of one. At one time during the game with Harvard they took the ball on their own 10-yard line and, instead of kicking, marched it up the field, and in a very few rushes scored a touchdown. Harvard men afterwards told me that after seeing a few minutes of the game they forgot the strain of Harvard's defeat in their admiration of Yale's playing. This team showed the highest co-ordination between the Yale coaching staff, the college, and the players, and they set a high-water mark for all future teams to aim at, which was all due to Gordon ...
— Football Days - Memories of the Game and of the Men behind the Ball • William H. Edwards

... winter dwelling, bearing a large blood-red flag, variegated with deep tints of black. When this terrible emblem is seen, the young warriors crowd around to hearken to the words of their chief. He then addresses them in a strain of impassioned, but rude and ferocious eloquence, calling upon them to follow him to glory and revenge. When he concludes his oration, he throws a wampum belt on the ground, which is respectfully lifted up by some warrior of high renown, ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... you've dropped your moustache. It fell off at the critical stage of the match; the shock of losing was too much for you; the strain of——" ...
— Once a Week • Alan Alexander Milne

... Elegies, on occasion of the untimely death of Mistress Elizabeth Drury. 'Of the Progress of the Soul,' Second Anniversary. It is the strain not of a mourning lover, but of a mourning friend. Sir Robert Drury was so cordial a friend that he gave to Donne and his wife a lodging rent free in his own large house in ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... time to prepare; for the tide was out, and the "Drake," beating down a narrow channel, made but slow headway. The delay was a severe strain upon the nerves of the men, who stood silent and grim at their quarters on the American ship, waiting for the fight to begin. At such a moment, even the most courageous must lose heart, as he thinks upon the terrible ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 1 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot

... o'clock in the afternoon he was thoroughly exhausted by the strain. The eager crowds had sapped his last ounce ...
— The Victim - A romance of the Real Jefferson Davis • Thomas Dixon

... call him William, only he is of the famous Bloomsbury strain, you know, and one can't help being a ...
— Jan and Her Job • L. Allen Harker

... perhaps, but it answered the purpose of deeply impressing the Chippewa with the uselessness of Peter's plans, and sustained as it was by his early predilections, it served to keep him on the right side, in the crisis which was approaching. The discourse continued, much in the same strain, until the men got in with their bear's meat, having been preceded some time by the others, with ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper

... few seconds Mrs. Hampton tried to maintain her composure. But the strain was too much upon her, so sinking down upon the steps, she buried her face in her hands. Grimsby was by no means affected by the woman's distress. He rather enjoyed it. He knew now that she was in his power. Drawing forth a package of cigarettes, he selected one, lighted ...
— Jess of the Rebel Trail • H. A. Cody

... life to his child, had to imitate the conduct of the mother after childbirth, abstain from any violent exertion, and sometimes feign weakness and lie up in the house, so as not to place any undue strain on the severed fraction of his life in his child, which would be simultaneously affected with his own, but was much ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) • R.V. Russell

... weird invitation of its lanterns, and the ghostly beliefs of the hour and the place there creeps upon me a nameless, tingling sense of being haunted. But no! these gracious, silent, waving, weaving shapes are not of the Shadowy Folk, for whose coming the white fires were kindled: a strain of song, full of sweet, clear quavering, like the call of a bird, gushes from some girlish mouth, and fifty soft voices ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan - First Series • Lafcadio Hearn

... later when the young aviator had been revived. His first inquiry was about the Gitchie Manitou. When he learned that this was apparently little injured and had already been backed into the aerodrome, he gave more evidence of his all-day's strain by again relapsing into unconsciousness on the cot that had been improvised for him before the fire in ...
— On the Edge of the Arctic - An Aeroplane in Snowland • Harry Lincoln Sayler

... said the medico; "I have looked after young Andrews, and I must now see to you. You may think yourself made of iron, but the human frame cannot endure the strain you have put on it without reaction; and we shall have you on the sick-list to-morrow, ...
— The Young Rajah • W.H.G. Kingston

... of the hill, I suddenly remembered that I must once more pass the gibbet, and began to strain my eyes for it. Presently I spied it, sure enough, its grim, gaunt outline looming through the murk, and instinctively I quickened my stride so as to pass it as soon as ...
— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol

... first she was continually bringing up the subject. We knew she thought of it constantly: that beneath all her joy in escape from bondage, in motoring, and in her adventures in beautiful, historic scenes, there was always that undertone—"When I meet my mother." And we too felt the strain of suspense, though in a different way—at least, Somerled and I felt it. I could see it often in the peculiar darkening of his face when anything happened to suggest the idea of the mother in the background. As for Aline, I suppose it was but natural her only interest in Mrs. ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... horse for a moment on a hillock to see what was going on, but strain his attention as he would he could not understand or make out anything of what was happening: there in the smoke men of some sort were moving about, in front and behind moved lines of troops; but why, whither, and who they were, it was impossible to make out. These sights and sounds had no depressing ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... strain upon her emotions, the solemn occasion, was too great for her in view of the crisis, which all unknown to her, must be now impending. However, upon learning from an attendant that the young girl was resting quietly ...
— Within the Temple of Isis • Belle M. Wagner

... started back with the doctor, while the other took out an anchor right astern, the capstan was rigged, a good strain got upon the cable, and after a great deal of tugging with the handspikes the men gave a hearty cheer and began to strain harder, for the tide had risen a little, and the schooner gradually glided ...
— The Black Bar • George Manville Fenn

... thank you very much. I hope I shall not have to put such a strain on you. It really does not depend upon me, otherwise I should have ordered the dress from ...
— Best Russian Short Stories • Various

... love, to give us penitence, purification, confidence, and a regenerating piety, and so to reconcile us to God. He says in one place, in emphatic words, that the express purpose of Christ's death was simply "that he might lead us to God." In the same strain, in another place, he defines the object of Christ's death to be "that we, being delivered from sins, should live unto righteousness." It is plain that in literal reality he refers our marvellous salvation to the voluntary goodness of God, and not to any vicarious ransom ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... preserve, the same tranquil air of interest toward them all—a tranquillity and interest which generally required no effort—some of the people she met in the day's work subconsciously aroused a feeling of antagonism in her, some secretly amused her, some irritated her, some made her feel under a strain, and some even had the queer, vampirish effect of leaving her washed out and listless—psychological puzzles which she had never been able to solve. But with Archey she always felt restful and contented, smiling at him and talking to him without exertion or repression ...
— Mary Minds Her Business • George Weston

... hand behind his back. It was the one with which he had gripped Landover's wrist that morning. The strain had reopened the ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon

... sight it is to see a dozen blood horses in top condition come past you like a flash of lightning! How their hoofs thunder on the level turf! How the jockeys' silk jackets rustle in the wind they make! How muscle and sinew strain as they pretty near fly through the air! No wonder us young fellows, and the girls too, feel it's worth a year of their lives to go to a good race. Yes, and will to the world's end. 'O you darling Rainbow!' I heard Aileen say. 'Are you going to win this race and triumph ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... keeps? Lord of the mighty arm and chest, Of earthly warriors first and best, Whose fame through all the regions rings, Proud scion of a hundred kings; Who guards his life and loves to lend His saving succour to a friend: Whose bow no hand but his can strain,— Thy lord, thy Rama is not slain. Obedient to his master's will, A great magician, trained in ill, With deftest art surpassing thought That marvellous illusion wrought. Let rising hope thy grief dispel: Look up and smile, for all is well, And gentle Lakshmi, Fortune's Queen, Regards ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... could be transformed into the purely spiritual festival which we celebrate to-day' (Montefiore, op. cit., p. 160). But the day is none the less associated with a strict rite, the fast. It is one of the few ascetic ceremonies in the Jewish Calendar as known to most Jews. There is a strain of asceticism in some forms of Judaism, and on this a few words will be said later. But, on the whole, there is in modern Judaism a tendency to underrate somewhat the value of asceticism in religion. ...
— Judaism • Israel Abrahams

... loved thy verse, yet never knew How sweet it was, till woman's voice invested The pencilled outline with the living hue, And every note of feeling proved and tested. What might old Pindar be, if once again The harp and voice were trembling with his strain! ] ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... descent from the hammock was not an awkward performance. His face and hands were of very dark complexion, either from constant exposure to wind and sun, or, as his black hair and dark eyes tended to show, from some strain of southern blood. His head was small, his face of an exquisite beauty of modelling, while the smoothness of its contour would have led you to believe that he was a beardless lad still in his teens. But something, some look which living and experience alone can give, seemed to ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Mystic-Humorous Stories • Various

... there and then hastily washed his hands and picking up a pen he wrote out what, his companions found on perusal, to run in this strain: ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book II • Cao Xueqin

... to be quarrelled with. This firm philosophy I seek to call to mind when I am in the East of London, whither my avocations often lead me; and, indeed, to fortify myself against the depressing sights which on these occasions assail us, I have transcribed from The Times one strain of this kind, full of the finest economical doctrine, and always carry it about with me. The ...
— Culture and Anarchy • Matthew Arnold

... know how to play my part," Mrs. De Peyster interrupted with dignity. Then she softened; it was her instinct to be thoughtful of those who served her. "We shall both try to get to bed early, my dear. You especially need sleep after last night's strain in getting Olivetta away. We shall have a ...
— No. 13 Washington Square • Leroy Scott

... sister talk in this melancholy strain, and still more alarmed by the change in her looks, sunken cheeks, hectic flush, fever-bright eyes, Angela entreated Lady Fareham to stay at the Manor, and be nursed and ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon

... violent strain upon the curtains, as she passionately uttered these words, that Madeleine's quick ears caught a sound as of some fastening giving way. With a cry of horror, she sprang to the bed, flung her arms around the countess, and dragged her from it just as ...
— Fairy Fingers - A Novel • Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie

... interposition of the Toulon fleet. The latter, however, kept him most uneasy; for he could get no certain knowledge as to its destination, or the probable time of its moving; and the wide field for injury open to it, if his vigilance were eluded, kept his eager, unquiet mind continually on the strain of speculation and anticipation. "I hope they will come out and let us settle the matter. You know I hate being kept in suspense." The nervous excitability—irritability—that often overlay the usually cordial kindliness and gracious bearing ...
— The Life of Nelson, Vol. II. (of 2) - The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain • A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

... source which could throw any light on the question, tells the contrary in both cases. Perhaps it will be contended that the constant presence of the love-motive at decisive moments leaves no doubt that they love each other from the beginning. To this I reply that it is not possible for a musical strain by itself to prove anything. It can only call to mind as a reminiscence something with which it has been definitely connected before. We cannot do better than leave such questions to be answered by each according to his own ...
— Wagner's Tristan und Isolde • George Ainslie Hight

... valuable way I frequently follow both for Ale, Butt-beer and Small Beer, and that is, in each Barrel Copper of Wort, I put in a Pottle, or two Quarts of whole Wheat as soon as I can, that it may soak before it boils, then I strain it thro' a Sieve, when I put the Wort in cooling Tubs, and if it is thought fit the same Wheat may be boiled in a second Copper: Thus there will be extracted a gluey Consistence, which being incorporated with the Wort by boiling, gives it a more thick and ...
— The London and Country Brewer • Anonymous

... to God!" The lofty strain The realm of ether fills: How sweeps the song of solemn joy O'er Judah's sacred hills! "Glory to God!" The sounding skies Loud with their anthems ring; "Peace on the earth; good-will to men, From heaven's ...
— Christmas - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse • Various

... paused an instant as it reached the trail and then the animal drew back sharply as though stung. Then it whirled about and the herd went crashing away through the sparse undergrowth. It was a time of the utmost nervous tension, and I don't believe the human system could undergo a prolonged strain of that severity. ...
— In Africa - Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country • John T. McCutcheon

... began to talk, in a pleasanter strain than I had yet heard her use. Was the pain less severe? she asked; and now she changed the linen cloths dipped in something cool and fragrant, infinitely soothing to the irritated skin. I must have ...
— Rosin the Beau • Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

... she could, she could not stem the flow of panic, and suddenly as she began to pant and breathe heavily with the strain of terror, she began also to gasp her ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1919 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... my angel-sphere, Vain was thy dream of many a year. Thy voice's praise seemed weak: it dropped— Creation's chorus stopped! Go back and praise again The early way, while I remain. With that weak voice of our disdain, Take up creation's pausing strain. ...
— The Evolution of Expression Vol. I • Charles Wesley Emerson

... giving way; Diablo was fighting half through the door, weakening before the onslaught of the powerful chestnut. Even in battle, as in a race, the stamina of the Lazzarone blood was telling; the bulldog courage of the strain was strong upon Lauzanne, now that ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser

... signal for speed, and we began a desperate race up the side of the mountain. Nothing but perfect physical health can stand such a strain. One who is not in athletic training will either fail completely in the test or do his ...
— Hunting with the Bow and Arrow • Saxton Pope

... unaware, however, that they had applied local anaesthetics to dull the pain. Dr. Gys was a remarkably skillful surgeon and he gave himself no rest until every one of the eleven had received such attention as his wounds demanded. Even Kelsey felt the strain by that time and as Maud expressed her intention of remaining to minister to the wants of the crippled soldiers, the two doctors went on deck for a smoke ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross • Edith Van Dyne



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