Clues for the word "STRAIN"
We've had 140 crossword clues used for this word, and seen it 223 times in crosswords. It was last seen in Evening Standard Cryptic crossword on November 14, 2025.
Definition of strain
- n. - Race; stock; generation; descent; family.
- n. - Hereditary character, quality, or disposition.
- n. - Rank; a sort.
- a. - To draw with force; to extend with great effort; to stretch; as, to strain a rope; to strain the shrouds of a ship; to strain the cords of a musical instrument.
- a. - To act upon, in any way, so as to cause change of form or volume, as forces on a beam to bend it.
- a. - To exert to the utmost; to ply vigorously.
- a. - To stretch beyond its proper limit; to do violence to, in the matter of intent or meaning; as, to strain the law in order to convict an accused person.
- a. - To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship.
- a. - To injure in the muscles or joints by causing to make too strong an effort; to harm by overexertion; to sprain; as, to strain a horse by overloading; to strain the wrist; to strain a muscle.
- a. - To squeeze; to press closely.
- a. - To make uneasy or unnatural; to produce with apparent effort; to force; to constrain.
- a. - To urge with importunity; to press; as, to strain a petition or invitation.
- a. - To press, or cause to pass, through a strainer, as through a screen, a cloth, or some porous substance; to purify, or separate from extraneous or solid matter, by filtration; to filter; as, to strain milk through cloth.
- v. i. - To make violent efforts.
- v. i. - To percolate; to be filtered; as, water straining through a sandy soil.
- n. - The act of straining, or the state of being strained.
- n. - A violent effort; an excessive and hurtful exertion or tension, as of the muscles; as, he lifted the weight with a strain; the strain upon a ship's rigging in a gale; also, the hurt or injury resulting; a sprain.
- n. - A change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass, produced by a stress.
- n. - A portion of music divided off by a double bar; a complete musical period or sentence; a movement, or any rounded subdivision of a movement.
- n. - Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, oration, book, etc.; theme; motive; manner; style; also, a course of action or conduct; as, he spoke in a noble strain; there was a strain of woe in his story; a strain of trickery appears in his career.
- n. - Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain.
Referring Clues
- Push beyond limits
- Back problem
- Muscle problem
- Cause of muscle ache
- Virus variety
- Lineage
- Considerable effort
- Use a sieve
- Variety
- Group of viruses
- Flu type
- Pour through a sieve
- Eye or back problem
- Turn to mush
- Exert
- Muscle injury
- Overexertion
- Prepare food for the baby
- Run through a sieve
- Variant
- Muscle woe
- Back or eye problem
- Bloodline
- Filter
- Tune
- Stress
- Sports injury
- Stretch to the limit
- Stretch to the limit
- Overexert
- Pressure
- Ancestry
- Exertion
- Sift
- Overstretch
- Athlete's injury
- Try hard
- Overtax
- Muscle malady
- Result of heavy moving
- Try too hard
- Muscle overexertion
- Change in length divided by original length
- Tension
- Eye or muscle problem
- Wrench
- Cause of back spasms
- Cause of collapse
- Exert to the utmost
- Intense or violent effort
- Cannabis variety
- The Fixx felt "The ___"
- Pressure - filter
- Second series for Melody
- Kind, good person drops wrench
- Make an effort to find the ancestral line
- Sieve
- Dishonour grips royal family
- Air pressure
- Make a great effort to find the ancestry
- Make an effort in race
- Rick will do everything possible
- Tension - tune
- Notes the great effort
- Strive to get variety
- Great effort - sieve
- Endeavour to get a wrench
- Try hard to find a vein
- Stretch tight
- Have difficulty in expressing The Sound of Music
- Anxiety in the family
- Tension - stock
- Overwork Bob's followers
- Muscle injury - tension
- Separate tax
- Make great effort in race
- A race calling for tremendous effort
- Filter - intense effort
- Descending line in melody
- Stress in music
- Stock melody
- Overwork - melody
- Pull (a muscle?)
- Music suggesting bad weather's on the way
- Make the utmost effort in variety
- See 18
- Family stress
- The S of RSI
- Racial tension?
- Stress injury
- Aspect of character first seen in Sunday school
- Try hard to produce melody
- Race demands big effort
- A number work very hard
- Type of express, perhaps, chasing its tail
- Variety of music filter
- Street water filter
- Type of injury
- The way wet weather causes tension
- Try hard to type
- Paintings returned by popular demand
- Family's caravan
- Work in arts is random
- Trace line of ancestry
- Sieve in stock
- Mark captures rook, resulting in stress
- Purify the race
- Tension in the air
- Variety music
- Stress the melody
- Get the lumps out of
- Put through a sieve
- Stress it runs in the family
- Twist to the music
- Make an effort in special school
- Push the limits
- Separate by sifting
- Do your utmost and find a line of descent
- Variation
- The tension shows in the music
- Tax
- With one's ancestry, overdo things
- Air filter
- For the family, make an effort
- Make an effort to find your ancestry
- Is tracing it hard work for genealogists?
- Filter, at most, half the water
- Do your utmost to get variety
- Overextend oneself
- Pasta instruction
- Twist music
- Go all out
- Distinct melodic segment
- Use a colander
- Genetic variant
- Variety of cannabis
- Notes the effort
- Use a sieve or cheesecloth
- Common eye ailment
- Give it all you've got, though having an injury
Last Seen In
- Evening Standard Cryptic - November 14, 2025
- Evening Standard Easy - October 09, 2025
- Your Life Choices - September 02, 2025
- Your Life Choices - August 31, 2025
- Daily Quick - July 07, 2025
- LA Times - June 28, 2025
- Daily Quick - June 22, 2025
- New Zealand Herald - June 13, 2025
- Evening Standard Cryptic - May 30, 2025
- Mirror Daily - April 05, 2025
- Evening Standard Cryptic - April 04, 2025
- Mindfood Daily - March 24, 2025
- New York Times - March 19, 2025
- Evening Standard Cryptic - February 14, 2025
- King Syndicate - Thomas Joseph - February 06, 2025
- Daily Quick - February 03, 2025
- Daily Quick - January 06, 2025
- USA Today - December 31, 2024
- New Zealand Herald - December 26, 2024
- Evening Standard Cryptic - December 20, 2024
- USA Today - November 23, 2024
- Daily Quick - November 19, 2024
- Daily American - November 18, 2024
- LA Times - October 22, 2024
- Mindfood Daily - October 01, 2024
- Evening Standard Cryptic - September 20, 2024
- Evening Standard Cryptic - September 13, 2024
- Mirror Daily - August 31, 2024
- Mindfood Daily - July 24, 2024
- Your Life Choices - July 22, 2024
- And in 193 more crossword puzzles...