distraining
distraining is the present participle and gerund of distrain.
Meaning of distrain
Verb
distrain (third-person singular simple present distrains, present participle distraining, simple past and past participle distrained)
- To squeeze, press, embrace; to constrain, oppress.
- But when he heard her answeres loth, he knew / Some secret sorrow did her heart distraine […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property.
- to distrain a person by his goods and chattels
- To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt.
- Synonyms:
- distress
- To pull off, tear apart.
- For that same net so cunningly was wound, / That neither guile, nor force might it distraine.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
Noun
distraining (plural distrainings)
- The act or process by which something is distrained.
Forms of distraining
| plural | distrainings |
|---|
Questions about distraining
- What does distraining mean?
- Distraining means the act or process by which something is distrained.
- What is distraining the present participle and gerund of?
- Distraining is the present participle and gerund of distrain.
- What part of speech is distraining?
- Distraining is a noun.
- What is the plural of distraining?
- The plural of distraining is distrainings.
Words near distraining in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: distraining (page history and authors); distrain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “distraining.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/distraining. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.