Search the Dictionary

Having no chain; not restrained or fettered. "The chainless mind." Byron.

That can not be checked or restrained.

The process of straining; the matter strained; a strainer. [R.]

Capable of being compelled or constrained. Blackstone.

Familiar talk; easy, unrestrained, unceremonious conversation. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all times, as fire in winter. Burton.

ce; to necessiate; to oblige. The love of Christ constraineth us. 2. Cor. v. 14. I was constrained to appeal unto CActs xxviii. 19.

Capable of being constrained; liable to constraint, or to restraint. Hooker.

The act of constraining, or the state of being constrained; that which compels to, or restrains from, action; compulsion; restraint; necessity. Long imprisonment and hard constraint. Spenser. Not by constraint, but bDryden.

Capable of being controlled, checked, or restrained; amenable to command. Passion is the drunkeness of the mind, and, therefore, . . . not always controllable by reason. South.

The power or act of controlling; the state of being rstrained; control; restraint; regulation; superintendence. You may do it without controlment. Shak.

A strong broth of meat, strained and made clear for invalids; also, a savory jelly. [Obs.] When I am exellent at caudles And cullises . . . you shall be welcome to me. Beau. & Fl.

An extract got from a body by boiling it in water. If the plant be boiled in water, the strained liquor is called the decoction of the plant. Arbuthnot. In pharmacy decoction is opposed to infusion, where there is merely steeping. Latham.

Unconstrained; easy; free. Vanbrugh.

Poured out; widely spread; not restrained; copious; full; esp., of style, opposed to concise or terse; verbose; prolix; as, a diffuse style; a diffuse writer. A diffuse and various knowledge of divine and human things. Milton.

Freedom to act according to one's own judgment; unrestrained exercise of choice or will. At discretion, without conditions or stipulations.

Left to discretion; unrestrained except by discretion or judgment; as, an ambassador with discretionary powers.

Freed from restraint; unrestrained. [Archaic] E. A. Poe.

ence; hence, to constrain or compel; to bind; to distress, torment, or afflict. [Obs.] "Distrained with chains." Chaucer.

Capable of being, or liable to be, distrained. Blackstone.

of goods and cattle. Spenser. The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for. Blackstone. Abuse of distress. (Law) See under Abuse.