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nstitutes anything what it is; real or existing essence. These cooks, how they stamp, and strain, and grind, And turn substance into accident! Chaucer. Heroic virtue did his actions guide, And he the substance, not the appearance, chose. Dryden.

by request; to make application; to petition; to entreat; to plead. By adverse destiny constrained to sue For counsel and redress, he sues to you. Pope. Cæsar came to Rome to sue for the double honor of a triumph and the consulship. C. Middleton. The Indians were defeated and sued for peace. Jefferson.…

gulating expense or expenditure. Bacon. Sumptuary laws or regulations, laws intended to restrain or limit the expenditure of citizens in apparel, food, furniture, etc.; laws which regulate the prices of commodities and the wages of labor; laws which forbid or restrict the use of certain articles, as of luxurious appare…

To keep in; to restrain from utterance or vent; as, to suppress the voice; to suppress a smile. Sir W. Scott.

s particles are mixed with, but undissolved in, a fluid, and are capable of separation by straining; also, any substance in this state.

Indicating suspicion, mistrust, or fear. We have a suspicious, fearful, constrained countenance. Swift.

An injury caused by violent strains or by overloading; -- said of the backs of horses. Crabb.

Free course; unrestrained liberty or license; tendency. "Take thy swing." Dryden. To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle to the full swing of his genius. Burke. Full swing. See under Full. -- Swing beam (Railway Mach.), a crosspiece sustaining the car body, and so suspended from the framing of a truck that it…

A sieve, or strainer, made of a kind of woolen cloth.

f woolen, or woolen and cotton, cloth, often highly glazed, -- used for curtains, sieves, strainers, etc.

Tight; stretched; not slack; -- said esp. of a rope that is tightly strained.

Habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence; moderation; as, temperance in eating and drinking; temperance in the indulgence of joy or mirth; specifically, moderation, and sometimes abstinence, in respect to using intoxicating liquors.…

of the softer passions; pathetic; as, tender expressions; tender expostulations; a tender strain.

Stretched tightly; strained to stiffness; rigid; not lax; as, a tense fiber. The temples were sunk, her forehead was tense, and a fatal paleness was upon her. Goldsmith. -- Tense"ly, adv. -- Tense"ness, n.

The act of stretching or straining; the state of being stretched or strained to stiffness; the state of being bent strained; as, the tension of the muscles, tension of the larynx.

The quality or state of being tense, or strained to stiffness; tension; tenseness.

Stiff; stretched; strained. [Obs.] Johnson.

etermination of the strength of materials, as iron, stone, etc., and their behavior under strains of various kinds, as elongation, bending, crushing, etc.

ting it to a determinate temperature, and giving to it, while in that state, a mechanical strain or tension in the direction in which the strength is afterward to be exerted.

To hold or constrain by authority or moral influence, as by knotted cords; to oblige; to constrain; to restrain; to confine. Not tied to rules of policy, you find Revenge less sweet than a forgiving mind. Dryden.