Strained

//stɹeɪ̯nd// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of strain form-of, participle, past
Adjective
  1. 1
    Forced through a strainer.

    "Babies don’t seem to like strained peas, even though the puree is easy for them to eat and digest."

  2. 2
    Under tension; tense.

    "Ever since the fight our relation has been strained."

  3. 3
    Not natural or spontaneous but done with effort

    "A strained smile."

Adjective
  1. 1
    struggling for effect wordnet
  2. 2
    lacking spontaneity; not natural wordnet
  3. 3
    lacking natural ease wordnet
  4. 4
    showing signs of mental and emotional tension wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
laboredtenseaffectedagitatedagonisticall-overish

Example

More examples

"I strained to hear what the President said."

Related phrases

half-strainedstrained silicon

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.