distringas

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In law: A process, now little used, directing the sheriff to distrain or make distress—that is, to seize and withhold the goods of the person sought to be coerced. It was used to compel a defendant to appear; also, after judgment for plaintiff in an action of detinue, to compel the defendant, by repeated distresses of his goods, to give np the chattel detained.
2. n. A process commanding the sheriff to bring in the bodies of jurors who did not appear, or to distrain their lands and goods.
3. n. A process in equity against a body corporate refusing to obey the summons and direction of the court.
4. n. An order of chancery, in favor of a party claiming to be interested in any stock in the Bank of England, by which a notice is served on the bank directing its officers not to permit its transfer, or not to pay any dividend on it.

Wiktionary

1. n. law A writ commanding the sheriff to distrain a person by his goods or chattels, to compel a compliance with something required of him.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Law) A writ commanding the sheriff to distrain a person by his goods or chattels, to compel a compliance with something required of him.