Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Half-bred; imperfect.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective rare Half-bred; imperfect.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • All the dogs were fighters except the big, soft-throated Mackenzie hounds, with the slow strength of oxen in their movements, and the quarter-strained and half-strained mongrels from the south; and upon these unfortunates the others preyed.

    The Honor of the Big Snows James Oliver Curwood 1903

  • With a half-strained movement she advanced a chilly hand to meet the girl's warm grasp.

    Flaming June George de Horne Vaizey 1887

  • -- Damn these half-strained shopkeepers, got between gentlemen and city wives; how naturally they quake, and run away from their own fathers! twenty souls a penny were a dear bargain of them.

    The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 07 John Dryden 1665

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