different between worry vs strain

English

Etymology

From Middle English worien, werien, wirien, wirwen, wyry?en (“to choke, strangle”), from Old English wyr?an, from Proto-Germanic *wurgijan?, from Proto-Indo-European *wer??- (“bind, squeeze”). Cognate with Dutch worgen, wurgen, German würgen. Compare Latin urgere (“to press, push”), Sanskrit ????? (v?hati, “to tear out, pluck”), Lithuanian ver?žti (“to string; squeeze”), Russian (poetic) ?????????? (otverzát?, “to open”, literally “to untie”). Related to wring.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General New Zealand, General Australian) IPA^(key): /?w??i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w??i/, /?w?i/
• (General New Zealand, General Australian, non-standard) IPA^(key): /?w??i/
• (West Country, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?w???i/
• (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• Rhymes: -?ri

Homophone: wurry

Verb

worry (third-person singular simple present worries, present participle worrying, simple past and past participle worried)

1. (intransitive) To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt.

2. (transitive) Disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress.

3. (transitive) To harass; to irritate or distress.

4. (transitive) To seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf.
5. (transitive) To touch repeatedly, to fiddle with.
   • 1997, David Sedaris, "A Plague of Tics", Naked, page 15:

     So what if I wanted to touch my nose to the windshield? Who was it hurting? Why was it that he could repeatedly worry his change and bite his lower lip without the threat of punishment?

   • 2002, Masha Hamilton, Staircase of a Thousand Steps, page 272:

     No stories, no arguments. He just worries his prayer beads.

6. (transitive, obsolete, Scotland) To strangle.
   • 1891, Journal of Jurisprudence and Scottish Law Magazine (1891), Execution of the Judgment of Death, page 397:

     We read (Law's Memor. Pref. lix.) that "one John Brugh, a notorious warlock (wizard) in the parochin of Fossoquhy, by the space of thirty-six years, was worried at a stake and burned, 1643."

Synonyms

• (trouble mentally): fret

Derived terms

• beworry
• worried

Translations

Noun

worry (countable and uncountable, plural worries)

1. A strong feeling of anxiety.

2. An instance or cause of such a feeling.

3. A person who causes worry.

Derived terms

• worrisome
• worryful
• worryless

Translations

Scots

Verb

worry

1. (transitive) To strangle.

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