straining

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of strain.

   The dog was straining against its leash to reach the squirrel.

   Workers were straining to push the truck out of the mud.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs. After be it builds the progressive (the rope was straining), and as a gerund it names the activity itself (straining only makes it worse). Most everyday uses carry the effort meaning and take to or against: straining to hear, straining against a leash. The gerund never pluralizes, while the noun of bodily effort can become strainings. The old meaning 'clasping tightly' is obsolete.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A strong physical effort or exertion, especially one that overworks or stretches the muscles.

   Like a tow rope stretched taut as it drags a heavy load uphill.

   The repeated straining of his lower back eventually caused an injury.

   Hours of straining against the stuck door left her completely exhausted.

   Similarexertion, overexertion, effort, struggling, heaving

   Oppositerelaxation, rest

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, this noun can be counted. Each straining is a single bout of effort, and the word often travels in the plural alongside other bodily struggles. Melville's Moby-Dick (1851) has "sundry violent gaspings and strainings." Reach for the plural when you mean repeated, separate efforts. Use the singular, or the gerund, for the activity in general.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The process of passing a liquid through a strainer to separate out solid pieces.

   Like sifting flour so only the fine powder falls through and the lumps stay behind.

   The straining of the broth through cheesecloth caught every last bone fragment.

   After the straining, the fruit juice was clear and free of pulp.

   Similarfiltering, filtration, sieving, draining

   Note

   The filter image travels easily from liquids to the mind. John de Boer's The Theory of Knowledge of the Cambridge Platonists (1931) reports Culverwel describing the mind's preparation as "so many strainings, refinings, and clarifyings": impurities caught and held back until the thought runs clear. Refining and clarifying are its natural companions in that figurative use.

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