different between strain vs difficulty

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?e??n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English str?on, ?estr?on (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *streun? (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English str?nd (“race; stock”), from str?onan, str?nan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).

Noun

strain (plural strains)

1. (archaic) Race; lineage, pedigree.
2. (biology) A particular variety of a microbe, virus, or other organism, usually a taxonomically infraspecific one.
3. (figuratively) Hereditary character, quality, tendency, or disposition.

   Synonyms: propensity, proneness

   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Advantages of Religion to Societies

     Intemperance and lust breed diseases, which being propogated, spoil the strain of a nation.

4. (music, poetry) 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.

   Synonyms: theme, motive, manner, style

5. Language that is eloquent, poetic, or otherwise heightened.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

6. (rare) A kind or sort (of person etc.).
7. (obsolete) Treasure.
8. (obsolete) The blood-vessel in the yolk of an egg.

Translations

Related terms

• strew

Etymology 2

From Middle English straynen, streinen, streynen, from Old French estreindre (whence French étreindre (“to grip”)), from Latin stringere (“to draw tight together, to tie”).

Verb

strain (third-person singular simple present strains, present participle straining, simple past and past participle strained)

1. (obsolete) To hold tightly, to clasp.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     So hauing said, her twixt her armes twaine / She straightly straynd, and colled tenderly [...].

   • Evander with a close embrace / Strained his departing friend.

   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds

     "Farewell!"—the mother strained her child to her heart again, and again put her from her, to embrace her more closely.

2. To apply a force or forces to by stretching out.

   to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship

   Relations between the United States and Guatemala traditionally have been close, although at times strained by human rights and civil/military issues.

3. To damage by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force.

   The gale strained the timbers of the ship.

4. To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as when bending a beam.
5. To exert or struggle (to do something), especially to stretch (one's senses, faculties etc.) beyond what is normal or comfortable.

   Sitting in back, I strained to hear the speaker.

   • They strain their warbling throats / To welcome in the spring.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Thus my plight was evil indeed, for I had nothing now to burn to give me light, and knew that 'twas no use setting to grout till I could see to go about it. Moreover, the darkness was of that black kind that is never found beneath the open sky, no, not even on the darkest night, but lurks in close and covered places and strains the eyes in trying to see into it.

6. To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in terms of intent or meaning.

   to strain the law in order to convict an accused person

   • 1724, Jonathan Swift, Drapier's Letters, 4

     There can be no other meaning in this expression, however some may pretend to strain it.

7. (transitive) To separate solid from liquid by passing through a strainer or colander
8. (intransitive) To percolate; to be filtered.

   water straining through a sandy soil

9. To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
   • 1641, John Denham, The Sophy

     [He] Still talks and plays with Fatima, but his mirth / Is forc'd and strained.
10. To urge with importunity; to press.

    to strain a petition or invitation
11. (transitive) hug somebody; to hold somebody tightly.

Derived terms

• strain every nerve

Translations

Noun

strain (countable and uncountable, plural strains)

1. The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
   • 1832, Charles Stewart Drewry (A.M.I.C.E.), A memoir on suspension bridges, page 183:

     If the Menai Bridge, for instance, were loaded at that rate, the entire strain on the main chains would be about 2000 tons ; while the chains containing 260 square inches of iron would bear, at 9 tons per square inch, 2340 tons, without stretching  ...

   • 2004, Sanjay Shrivastava, Medical Device Materials: Proceedings from the Materials & Processes for Medical Devices Conference 2003, 8-10 September 2003, Anaheim, California, ASM International (?ISBN), page 176:

     Therefore, the goal of this study is to assess the influence of strain on the corrosion resistance of passivated Nitinol and stainless steel implant materials. Materials and Methods Nitinol (50.8%at. Ni) wire (NDC, Fremont, CA) and 316L stainless ...

2. A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles.

3. An injury resulting from violent effort; a sprain.
4. (uncountable, engineering) A dimensionless measure of object deformation either referring to engineering strain or true strain.
5. (obsolete) The track of a deer.
   • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 145:

     When they have shot a Deere by land, they follow him like bloud-hounds by the bloud, and straine, and oftentimes so take them.

Derived terms

• breaking strain

Translations

Related terms

• stress
• strict
• stringent

Etymology 3

From Middle English strenen (“to beget, father, procreate”), from Old English str?onan, str?enan, str?nan (“to beget, generate, gain, acquire”), from Proto-Germanic *striunijan? (“to furnish, decorate, acquire”).

Verb

strain (third-person singular simple present strains, present participle straining, simple past and past participle strained)

1. (obsolete) To beget, generate (of light), engender, copulate (both of animals and humans), lie with, be born, come into the world.

Anagrams

• Sartin, Tarins, Trains, atrins, instar, santir, sartin, starin', tairns, tarins, trains

English

Etymology

From Middle English difficultee, from Old French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile and difficult. Equivalent to dis- +? facile +? -ty. Also analysable as difficult +? -y, though the adjective is historically a backformation from the noun.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?f?k?lti/

Noun

difficulty (countable and uncountable, plural difficulties)

1. The state of being difficult, or hard to do.
2. An obstacle that hinders achievement of a goal.
3. (sometimes in the plural) Physical danger from the environment, especially with risk of drowning
   • 2012 August 2, "Children rescued after getting into difficulties in Donegal" BBC Online
   • 2016 March 30, Alan Thompson, "Diver taken to hospital after getting into difficulties at Stoney Cove diving centre" Leicester Mercury
   • 2016 February 24, Catherine Shanahan, "Boy, 13, drowns after getting into difficulty in river" Irish Examiner

     The three teenagers, a girl and two boys, were playing by the river when it is believed they got into difficulty.

   • 2016 March 14, "Kayaker rescued after getting into difficulty" Bournemouth Echo

     Members of the public had called 999 as they were concerned the kayaker was in difficulty around the headland race due to very strong spring tides and choppy seas with the kayaker making no headway.

   • 2016 March 19, Neil Shaw "Teens rescued from Dartmoor after getting into difficulty" Plymouth Herald

     A group of young people had to be rescued from Dartmoor on Friday night after getting into difficulty during a Duke of Edinburgh exercise. […] A 16-year-old girl required medical attention and a medic was winched down to the site by helicopter.

4. An objection.
5. That which cannot be easily understood or believed.
6. An awkward situation or quarrel.

Derived terms

• difficulty level
• with difficulty

Related terms

• difficile
• difficult

Translations

Further reading

• difficulty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• difficulty in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.