strain

¹strain

noun

Definition of STRAIN

1

the line of ancestors from whom a person is descended <descended from a strain of Irish seafarers>

Synonyms birth, blood, bloodline, breeding, descent, extraction, family tree, genealogy, line, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, stock, strain

Related Words heredity, succession; family, house; kin, kindred, relations, relatives; race

Near Antonyms offspring; child, heir, inheritor, son, successor

Antonyms issue, posterity, progeny, seed

2

a rhythmic series of musical tones arranged to give a pleasing effect <the strain of an old Irish ballad rose up from the revelers downstairs>

Synonyms air, lay, song, strain, tune, warble

Related Words descant (also discant); cadence, measure, meter, rhythm; ballad, ditty, hymn, lyric, madrigal

3

a very small amount <detected a strain of panic in her voice when she asked if the substance was poisonous>

Synonyms ace, bit, crumb, dab, dram, driblet, glimmer, hint, lick, little, mite, nip, ounce, peanuts, ray, scintilla, scruple, shade, shadow, shred, skosh, smack, smell, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin or smidge), snap, soupçon, spark, spatter, speck, splash, spot, sprinkling, strain, streak, suspicion, tad, touch, trace

Related Words hoot, iota, jot, minim, minimum, modicum, semblance, syllable, tittle, vestige, whit; atom, dot, fleck, flyspeck, grain, granule, molecule, morsel, mote, nubbin, patch, scrap; dash, drop, pinch; part, portion, section; bite, nibble, taste; handful, scattering, smatter, smattering; dose, shot; chip, flake, fragment, shard, shiver, sliver, smithereens, splinter; shred, tatter; clipping, paring, shaving

Near Antonyms abundance, barrel, boatload, bucket, bundle, bushel, deal, fistful, gobs, heaps, lashings (also lashins) [chiefly British], loads, lot, mass, mess, mountain, much, oodles, passel, peck, pile, plenty, potful, profusion, quantity, raft, reams, scads, stack, wad, wealth; volume; bonanza, embarrassment, excess, overabundance, overage, overflow, overkill, overmuch, oversupply, superabundance, superfluity, surfeit, surplus; chunk, hunk, lump, slab

4

a number of persons or things that are grouped together because they have something in common <writes mystery novels of a more sophisticated strain>

Synonyms breed, class, description, feather, genre, ilk, kidney, kind, like, manner, nature, order, species, strain, stripe, type, variety

Related Words model; sample, specimen; bracket, bunch, category, division, family, grade, group, grouping, lot, persuasion, rank(s), set, suite