distraint
(dɪˈstreɪnt)
[f. distrain v., perh. after OF. destrainte (13–16th c. in Godef.), destraincte ‘a restraint of libertie’ (Cotgr.), fem. n. from pa. pple.: cf. constraint.]
The action of distraining (in the legal sense); = distress n. 3.
| 1730–6 in Bailey (folio). 1833 H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. vii. 115 There would be a distraint for penalties. 1869 Daily News 25 Aug., The bailiffs shortly afterwards entered the house, and..made a distraint which almost stripped it of furniture. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. §10. 571 Payment of taxes..was enforced by distraint. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. ix. 262 The distraint of cattle for damages still retains a variety of archaic features. |
b. distraint of knighthood: compulsion to accept knighthood (in consequence of tenure of a knight's fee, or an estate worth {pstlg}20 a year). (See distrain v. 7 b, quot. 1647.)
| 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xv. 281 The distraint of knighthood was..a link between the two branches of the national force. |