Definition of "straining" []

• Present participle of strain. (verb)
• The act by which one strains. (noun)

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• "They were guilty of not advertising that anything untoward was afoot, although they did steal glances up to their captain straining through the binoculars."
• "But then I could actually feel my unconscious brain straining to generate fractal landscapes as I flew, and start to realize that it was just a dream."
• "Just how popular the act was is difficult to ascertain – one can hardly imagine theater patrons straining from the far rows of a venue to make sense of the various parakeets hopping around on a stage."