strained adj

1 lacking natural ease; "a labored style of debating" [syn: labored, laboured]

2 under great stress; "her voice was strained as she asked the question"

3 lacking spontaneity; not natural; "a constrained smile"; "forced heartiness"; "a strained smile" [syn: constrained, forced]

4 struggling for effect; "agonistic poses" [syn: agonistic]

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪnd

Adjective

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. Under tension; tense.

   Ever since the fight our relation has been strained.

Verb

strained

1. past of strain

Herculean, agitated, all-overish, anxious, anxioused up, apprehensive, arduous, artificial, awkward, backbreaking, biased, bothered, burdensome, chill, chilly, cold, concerned, cooked, cool, crushing, difficult, disaccordant, disquieted, distant, disturbed, doctored, dragged out, drawn, drawn out, effortful, elongated, extended, farfetched, fearful, forced, foreboding, frosty, garbled, grueling, hard-earned, hard-fought, heavy, hefty, icy, improbable, in a pucker, in a stew, incompatible, inhospitable, inimical, insincere, killing, labored, laborious, lengthened, misgiving, misquoted, misrepresented, nervous, on tenterhooks, onerous, operose, oppressive, out-of-the-way, overanxious, overapprehensive, painful, perturbed, perverted, prolongated, prolonged, protracted, pulled, punishing, put-on, quite another thing, remote, self-conscious, slanted, solicitous, something else again, spun out, stiff, straggling, strenuous, stretched, stretched out, stretched tight, strung out, suspenseful, taut, tense, tight, toilsome, tortured, tough, troubled, troublesome, twisted, unamiable, unamicable, uncomfortable, uncordial, under a strain, uneasy, unfriendly, ungenial, unharmonious, unnatural, unrelaxed, unsociable, uphill, uptight, wearisome, zealous