The Collaborative International Dictionary
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. (present participle of distrain English)
Usage examples of "distraining".
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.