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distrain
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology
From Middle English distreynen, from Old French destraindre, from Latin distringō (“to pull asunder”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringō (“to draw tight, strain”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /dɪˈstɹeɪn/
- Rhymes: -eɪn
- Hyphenation: dis‧train
Verb
distrain (third-person singular simple present distrains, present participle distraining, simple past and past participle distrained)
- (obsolete) To squeeze, press, embrace; to constrain, oppress.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- But when he heard her answeres loth, he knew / Some secret sorrow did her heart distraine […]
- 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XII, xii:
- Thus spake the Prince, and gently 'gan distrain / Now him, now her, between his friendly arms.
- (law, transitive, obsolete) To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property.
- to distrain a person by his goods and chattels
- (law, intransitive) To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt.
- (obsolete) To pull off, tear apart.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- For that same net so cunningly was wound, / That neither guile, nor force might it distraine.
Synonyms
- (to seize somebody's property in place of, or to force payment of a debt) distress
Derived terms
Translations
To squeeze
To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property
|
To seize somebody's property in place of payment of a debt
To pull off, tear apart
Further reading
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “distrain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “distrain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “distrain”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
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