distrain dih-STREYN, verb:
1. To seize the property of (a person) in order to compel payment of debts.
2. To levy a distress upon.
He would be thinking of her as a Fury coming to carry him off, or even as a tipstaff with warrant to distrain. Yet it was not she, but Love, that was the bailiff.
-- Samuel Beckett, Murphy
He had come up against a very crafty minx who, instead of seeking to distrain his effects, went for him instead, had him arrested and jailed.
-- Denis Diderot, Jacques the fatalist and his master
Distrain is ultimately a combination of two Latin roots, dis, "apart," and stringere, "to draw tight."
Sognami Community Member 
|
|
