straint

Uncertain. Perhaps partly from Middle French estrainte, estreinte, from Old French estrainte, estreinte; and perhaps partly taken from a clipping of English contraint, restraint, etc. See strain.

straint

1. (obsolete) Strain (tension of overexertion).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     That with the straint o his weasand nigh he brast

• “straint”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• start in, transit, Transit, startin', Tristan