distrain

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)

1. (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.

2. (law, transitive, obsolete) To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property.

   to distrain a person by his goods and chattels

3. (law, intransitive) To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt.
4. (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

Further reading

• “distrain”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “distrain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “distrain”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.