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To free from restraint; to set at liberty.. It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding. Dryden.

Not lofty or sublime; humble. These rural poems, and their lowly strain. Dryden.

To indulge with unrestrained delight and freedom; as, to luxuriate in description.

In general, any combination of bodies so connected that their relative motions are constrained, and by means of which force and motion may be transmitted and modified, as a screw and its nut, or a lever arranged to turn about a fulcrum or a pulley about its pivot, etc.; especially, a construction, more or less complex,…

Excited beyond self-control or the restraint of reason; inflamed by violent or uncontrollable desire, passion, or appetite; as, to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred; mad against political reform. It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols. Jer. 1. 88. And being exceedingly mad against them, I…

pastoral poem, containing some tender and delicate, though simple, thought. Whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal. Milton.

l in a fore and aft vessel. -- Main brace. (a) (Mech.) The brace which resists the chief strain. Cf. Counter brace. (b) (Naut.) The brace attached to the main yard. -- Main center (Steam Engine), a shaft upon which a working beam or side lever swings. -- Main chance. See under Chance. -- Main couple (Arch.), the pr…

To require; to constrain; to compel; to force; to cause; to occasion; -- followed by a noun or pronoun and infinitive.

handcuffs or other fastening upon, for confining the hands; to shackle; to confine; to restrain from the use of the limbs or natural powers. Is it thus you use this monarch, to manacle and shackle him hand and foot Arbuthnot.

A breed of large dogs noted for strength and courage. There are various strains, differing in form and color, and characteristic of different countries. Mastiff bat (Zoöl.) , any bat of the genus Molossus; so called because the face somewhat resembles that of a mastiff.

Extent or degree not excessive or beyong bounds; moderation; due restraint; esp. in the phrases, in measure; with measure; without or beyond measure. Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure. Is. v. 14.

Quincey. Thou oughtest not to be slothful to the destruction of the miscreants, but to constrain them to obey our Lord God. Rivers.

One who favors a form of government in which the unintelligent populace rules without restraint. Bayne.

ds; observing reasonable limits; not excessive, extreme, violent, or rigorous; limited; restrained; as:

The act of moderating, or of imposing due restraint.

One who, or that which, moderates, restrains, or pacifies. Sir W. Raleigh. Angling was ... a moderator of passions. Walton.

Restraining within due limits of propriety; not forward, bold, boastful, or presumptious; rather retiring than pushing one's self forward; not obstructive; as, a modest youth; a modest man.

the ratio of a stress on a given unit of the substance to the accompanying distortion, or strain. (b) An expression of the force (usually in terms of the height in feet or weight in pounds of a column of the same body) which would be necessary to elongate a prismatic body of a transverse section equal to a given unit,…

A speech uttered by a person alone; soliloquy; also, talk or discourse in company, in the strain of a soliloquy; as, an account in monologue. Dryden.

One who talks in the same strain or on the same subject until weariness is produced. Richardson.