Crossword clues for distrain
distrain
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Distrain \Dis*train"\, v. i. To levy a distress.
Upon whom I can distrain for debt.
--Camden.
Distrain \Dis*train"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Distrained; p. pr. & vb. n. Distraining.] [OE. destreinen to force, OF. destreindre to press, oppress, force, fr. L. distringere, districtum, to draw asunder, hinder, molest, LL., to punish severely; di- = stringere to draw tight, press together. See Strain, and cf. Distress, District, Distraint.]
To press heavily upon; to bear down upon with violence; hence, to constrain or compel; to bind; to distress, torment, or afflict. [Obs.] ``Distrained with chains.''
--Chaucer.-
To rend; to tear. [Obs.]
Neither guile nor force might it [a net] distrain.
--Spenser. -
(Law)
To seize, as a pledge or indemnification; to take possession of as security for nonpayment of rent, the reparation of an injury done, etc.; to take by distress; as, to distrain goods for rent, or of an amercement.
To subject to distress; to coerce; as, to distrain a person by his goods and chattels.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (label en obsolete) To squeeze, press, embrace; to constrain, oppress. 2 (label en legal transitive obsolete) To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property. 3 (label en legal intransitive) To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt. 4 (label en obsolete) To pull off, tear apart.
WordNet
v. levy a distress on
confiscate by distress
legally take something in place of a debt payment
Usage examples of "distrain".
No one shall be distrained for performance of greater service for a knight’s fee, or for any other free tenement, than is due therefrom.
No one shall be distrained for performance of greater service for a knight’s fee, or for any other free tenement, than is due therefrom.
Effulgent on funereal piled Across the vacant heavens, and distrained Her body, mutely, even as earth, to bear.
Hodson, his hind from Mudbury, into the carriage with him, and they talked about distraining, and selling up, and draining and subsoiling, and a great deal about tenants and farming—much more than I could understand.
For this man fronting her was more than she had thought him, and suddenly it seemed that giving him up was almost as generous a gesture as this gesture of his, turning her loose to her happiness with another man and another cause, only distraining the small matter of gold for his pains.
I never came to the point of distraining on a tenant or flogging a villein but I heard him outarguing me, and drew in my hand.
First of all, he pronounced the property of Tiberius Gracchus to be forfeited to the gods because in fining and distraining upon a man who had appealed to a tribune, he had not yielded to his veto and had impugned his authority.