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Serving to restrain or limit; restraining; opposing. [Obs.] Shak.

Power or authority to check or restrain; restraining or regulating influence; superintendence; government; as, children should be under parental control. The House of Commons should exercise a control over all the departments of the executive administration. Macaulay. Board of control. See under Board.…

Any force or device designed to restrain another restraining force; a check upon a check. The system of checks and counterchecks. J. H. Newton.

One who distrains; the party distraining goods or chattels. Blackstone.

The act of distraining; the taking of a personal chattel out of the possession of a wrongdoer, by way of pledge for redress of an injury, or for the performance of a duty, as for nonpayment of rent or taxes, or for injury done by cattle, etc.

Freedom from jolting, jerking, or straining.

To filter; to defecate; as liquid, by straining or percolation. Arbuthnot.

Not continent; uncontrolled; not restraining the passions or appetites, particularly the sexual appetite; indulging unlawful lust; unchaste; lewd.

o the wishes, humor, or appetites of those under one's care; compliant; not opposing or restraining; tolerant; mild; favorable; not severe; as, an indulgent parent. Shak. The indulgent censure of posterity. Waller. The feeble old, indulgent of their ease. Dryden.

A stopping or checking of an already present action; a restraining of the function of an organ, or an agent, as a digestive fluid or ferment, etc.; as, the inhibition of the respiratory center by the pneumogastric nerve; the inhibition of reflexes, etc.

A straining, stretching, or bending; the state of being strained; as, the intension of a musical string.

The pitching or tossing of a vessel which results in the straining of timbers and rigging.

or toward the person or persons laughed at. -- To laugh out, to laugh in spite of some restraining influence; to laugh aloud. -- To laugh out of the other corner (or side) of the mouth, to weep or cry; to feel regret, vexation, or disappointment after hilarity or exaltation. [Slang]

That which limits; a restriction; a qualification; a restraining condition, defining circumstance, or qualifying conception; as, limitations of thought. The cause of error is ignorance what restraints and limitations all principles have in regard of the matter whereunto they are applicable. Hooker.

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.

A distraining or levying of a distress; an impounding. Burrill.

To bring or place under obligation, moral or legal; to hold by a constraining motive. "Obligated by a sense of duty." Proudfit. That's your true plan -- to obligate The present ministers of state. Churchill.

The act or process of percolating, or filtering; filtration; straining. Specifically (Pharm.), the process of exhausting the virtues of a powdered drug by letting a liquid filter slowly through it.

gin.), the greatest load than can be applied to a piece, as a beam, column, etc., without straining the piece beyond the elastic limit. -- Proof sheet. See Proof, n., 5. -- Proof spirit (Chem.), a strong distilled liquor, or mixture of alcohol and water, containing not less than a standard amount of alcohol. In the U…

To wrench; to tear; to sprain; to injure by violent straining or contortion. [R.] Dryden. "Hasting to raunch the arrow out." Spenser.