strain
/stɹeɪn/ noun B1- 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.
- Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition. · There is a strain of madness in her family.
- 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.
- Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.
Plural strains
From the library
Well, am I to rush into his arms, and strain him to my heart, crying, ‘My father, my father!’ like Monsieur Pixérécourt.”
It had also been noted and commented upon by a few observant people that there were signs sometimes of some nerve-strain upon the part of Mrs.
“Do you know, Villefort, that you are talking in a most dreadfully revolutionary strain?
Not so much bodily exertion, you understand, as the strain upon the mind.
Other matches
Learn strain in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.