| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| strain2 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  str n |
| NOUN: | 1. The collective descendants of a common ancestor; a race, stock, line, or breed. 2. Any of the various lines of ancestry united in an individual or a family; ancestry or lineage. 3. Biology A group of organisms of the same species, having distinctive characteristics but not usually considered a separate breed or variety: a superior strain of wheat; a smooth strain of bacteria. 4. An artificial variety of a domestic animal or cultivated plant. 5. A kind or sort: imaginings of a morbid strain. 6a. An inborn or inherited tendency or character. b. An inherent quality; a streak. See synonyms at streak. 7a. The tone, tenor, or substance of a verbal utterance or of a particular action or behavior: spoke in a passionate strain. b. A prevailing quality, as of attitude or behavior. 8. Music A passage of expression; a tune or an air. Often use in the plural: melodic strains of the violin. 9a. A passage of poetic and especially lyrical expression. b. An outburst or a flow of eloquent or impassioned language. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English strene, from Old English str on, something gained, progeny. See ster-2 in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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