Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STRAG'GLER, n.

1. A wanderer; a rover; one that departs from the direct or proper course; one that rambles without any settled direction. – Swift.
2. A vagabond; a wandering shiftless fellow.
3. Something that shoots beyond the rest or too far.
4. Something that stands by itself.

STRAG'GLING, ppr.

Wandering; roving; rambling; being in a separate position.

STRAHL-STEIN, n. [G. strahl, a beam or gleam, and stein, stone.]

Another name of actinolite. – Ure.

STRAIGHT, a. [strait; L. strictus, from stringo; Sax. strac; formed from the root of reach, stretch, right, L. rectus, G. recht, Fr. etroit, It. stretto, in which the palatal letter is lost; but the Spanish retains it in estrecho, estrechar. It is lost in the Port. estreito. It is customary to write straight, for direct or right, and strait, for narrow, but this is a practice wholly arbitrary, both being the same word. Strait we use in the sense in which it is used in the South of Europe. Both senses proceed from stretching, straining.]

1. Right, in a mathematical sense; direct; passing from one point to another by the nearest course; not deviating or crooked; as, a straight line; a straight course; a straight piece of timber.
2. Narrow; close; tight; as, a straight garment. [See Strait, as it is generally written.]
3. Upright; according with justice and rectitude; not deviating from truth or fairness.

STRAIGHT, adv.

Immediately; directly; in the shortest time. I know thy generous temper well; / Fling but th' appearance of dishonor on it, / It straight takes fire, and mounts into a blaze. – Addison.

STRAIGHT'EN, v.t. [stra'itn.]

1. To make straight; to reduce from a crooked to a straight form. – Hooker.
2. To make narrow, tense, or close; to tighten.
3. To reduce to difficulties or distress.

STRAIGHT'EN-ED, pp.

Made straight; made narrow.

STRAIGHT'EN-ER, n.

He or that which straightens.

STRAIGHT'EN-ING, ppr.

Making straight or narrow.

STRAIGHT-FORTH, adv.

Directly; henceforth.

STRAIGHT-FOR-WARD, a.

Proceeding in a straight course; not deviating.

STRAIGHT-FOR-WARD-NESS, n.

Direction in a straight course; undeviating rectitude.

STRAIGHT-LIN-ED, a.

Having straight lines.

STRAIGHT'LY, adv.

1. In a right line; not crookedly.
2. Tightly; closely.

STRAIGHT'NESS, n.

1. The quality or state of being, straight; rectitude. – Bacon.
2. Narrowness; tension; tightness.

STRAIGHT-WAY, adv. [straight and way.]

Immediately; without loss of time; without delay. He took the damsel by the hand, and said to her, Talitha cumi. And straightway the damsel arose. – Mark v. [Straightways is obsolete.]

STRAIKS, n.

Strong plates of iron on the circumference of a cannon wheel, over the joints of the fellies.

STRAIN, n.

1. A violent effort; a stretching or exertion of the limbs or muscles, or of any thing else.
2. An injury by excessive exertion, drawing or stretching. – Grew.
3. Style; continued manner of speaking or writing; as, the genius and strain of the Book of Proverbs. – Tillotson. So we say, poetic strains, lofty strains.
4. Song; note; sound; or a particular part of a tune. Their heavenly harps a lower strain began. – Dryden.
5. Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements. Hayward.
6. Manner of speech or action. Such take too high a strain at first. – Bacon.
7. Race; generation; descent. He is of a noble strain. [Not in use.] – Shak.
8. Hereditary disposition. Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which propagated, spoil the strain of a nation. [Not in use.] – Tillotson.
9. Rank; character. [Not in use.] – Dryden.

STRAIN, v.i.

1. To make violent efforts. To build his fortune I will strain a little. Shak. Straining with too weak a wing. Pope.
2. To be filtered. Water straining through sand become pure.

STRAIN, v.t. [Fr. etreindre; It. strignere; Sp. estreñir; L. stringo. This word retains its original signification, to stretch. Strain is the L. stringo, as straight is strictus, in different dialects.]

1. To stretch; to draw with force; to extend with great effort; as, to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship; to strain the cords of an instrument.
2. To cause to draw with force, or with excess of exertion; to injure by pressing with too much effort. He strained his horses or his oxen by overloading them.
3. To stretch violently or by violent exertion; as, to strain the arm or the muscles.
4. To put to the utmost strength. Men in desperate cases will strain themselves for relief.
5. To press or cause to pass through some porous substance; to purify or separate from extraneous matter by filtration; to filter; as, to strain milk. Water may be strained through sand. – Bacon. Arbuthnot.
6. To sprain; to injure by drawing or stretching. Prudes decay'd about may tack, / Strain their necks with looking back. – Swift.
7. To make tighter; to cause to bind closer. To strain his fetters with a stricter care. – Dryden.
8. To force; to constrain; to make uneasy or unnatural. His mirth is forced and strained. Denham.

STRAIN'A-BLE, a.

Capable of being strained. [Not in use.] – Bacon.

STRAIN'ED, pp.

Stretched; violently exerted; filtered.

STRAIN'ER, n.

That through which any liquid passes for purification; an instrument for filtration.

STRAIN'ING, n.

The act of stretching; the act of filtering; filtration.

STRAIN'ING, ppr.

Stretching; exerting with violence; making great efforts; filtering.