First two leaving subdued and tense

Usage examples of strained.

They were gradually adapting to living off algae they strained out of seawater.

I strained to see across the waters and catch a glimpse of distant Alba, but we were too far, here.

She lifted her chin, raising strained aquamarine eyes to meet a gaze as stormy as the threatening glow inside a volcano about to erupt.

Of an arthritic little islander, whose French and African blood had strained its way into the Jamaican aristocracy and MI5 by way of Eton and Oxford.

Immense asses strained neon pink and chartreuse capris to the awful bursting point.

Chapter 12 John the Baptist, the mighty prophet of Israel, strained his vision toward the last rays of sunset which leaked through the solitary aperture in his dungeon wall.

Zigzagging to avoid large stars which could disrupt a blink generator and send a ship and its contents into limbo for eternity, the ship blinked and rested, bunked and rested, traveling the Orion Arm in seven-league boots, covering distances which strained the imagination in an instant, held back only by the need to rest, to recharge, to build for the next jump.

Misseltoe, bruised and strained into oyle and drunken, hath presently and forthwith rid a grievous and sore stitch.

Across the Atlantic an officinal tincture is made from the Tomato for curative purposes by treating the apples, and the bruised fresh plant with alcohol, and letting this stand for eight days before it is filtered and strained.

She strained against Ki, her arms clutching him tightly around his back, while inside, Ki could feel his urgency burgeoning with every surge of her satiny sheath.

Add one half cupful of stewed and strained tomatoes, a teaspoonful each of made mustard and sugar, and salt and cayenne to season highly.

Indeed, that was what had happened to her, although I strained desperately and successfully to block out the clairvoyant images of her actual death.

But her native armor crumbled, strained beyond tolerance, and she flung herself onto her cot, curled up in a ball and gave in to gut wrenching sobs.

Caught in the rubble, Dex strained to reach the ray gun, but his fingers only grazed it.

In worming against her warmth he has pulled her dress up from her knees, and their repulsive breadth and pallor, laid bare defenselessly, superimposed upon the tiny, gamely gritted teeth the boy exposed for him, this old whiteness strained through this fine mesh, make a milk that feels to Eccles like his own blood.