strain

«strain» in Mova's school dictionary: to try very hard or push your body or mind to its limit — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (strain, strains, strained, straining); noun (a strain, strains; strain)

meaning for a pupil

1) To strain is to try very hard or push your body or mind to its limit. tree →

2) To strain a muscle is to hurt it by stretching or using it too much. tree →

3) To strain food or liquid is to pour it through a sieve to separate the solid bits. tree →

4) Strain is worry or pressure that makes someone tired or tense. tree →

5) A strain is a type of a plant, animal or germ, like a strain of flu. tree →

6) A strain is a tune or melody of music. tree →

sense in the lessons

In PE and health, warming up helps stop muscle strains. In cooking and science, straining separates a solid from a liquid, like pasta from water; this is filtering. In stories, characters «strain to hear» faint sounds. In science, a force puts strain on a bridge or rope. Phrases: «strain your eyes», «under strain», «strain to hear».

examples

• He strained to lift the heavy box. tree →
• I strained a muscle in my leg playing football. tree →
• Strain the pasta in a colander. tree →
• Don't strain your eyes reading in the dark. tree →
• We strained to hear the whisper. tree →
• Mum is under a lot of strain at work. tree →
• This is a new strain of flu. tree →
• The rope began to strain under the weight. tree →
• A glorious strain of music sounded--now distant, now near. tree →

note

Past form: strained. Both countable (a strain, a strain of flu) and uncountable (stress and strain). A strain (muscle hurt by stretching) is milder than a sprain (twisted joint) or a break, but see an adult if it hurts a lot. In science, straining through a sieve is a way to separate mixtures.

In the corpora

• Warm-ups such as lip trills and humming help the breath and the voice muscles work without strain.
• Singing with a sore throat can strain the voice and make it worse; singers rest, drink water and avoid shouting.
• A warm-up makes muscles warmer and readier to work, so they are less likely to be strained.
• Bending your head far forward over a phone strains the muscles of your neck.
• Lifting something too heavy can strain muscles, especially in the back.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «strain» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.