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ulating 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 apparel…

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

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.

To brush against or over; to rub lightly along. Their long descending train, With rubies edged and sapphires, swept the plain. Dryden.

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…

h (Railways), a form of switch contrived to prevent or lessen the danger of derailment of trains. -- Switch back (Railways), an arrangement of tracks whereby elevations otherwise insurmountable are passed. The track ascends by a series of zigzags, the engine running alternately forward and back, until the summit is re…

witching engine, a locomotive for switching cars from one track to another, and making up trains; -- called also switch engine. [U.S.]

A train or company of attendants; a retinue. "Ah," said he, "if you saw but the chief with his tail on." Sir W. Scott.

To receive into the mind or understanding. "Some bright genius can take in a long train of propositions." I. Watts. (h) To receive regularly, as a periodical work or newspaper; to take. [Eng.] -- To take in hand. See under Hand. -- To take in vain, to employ or utter as in an oath. "Thou shalt not take the name of the…

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

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.

A dumb gymnastic apparatus for training the hands of pianists and organists, as to a legato touch.

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.…

f 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.