What's the difference between constrain and distrain?

Constrain


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To secure by bonds; to chain; to bond or confine; to hold tightly; to constringe.
  • (v. t.) To bring into a narrow compass; to compress.
  • (v. t.) To hold back by force; to restrain; to repress.
  • (v. t.) To compel; to force; to necessitate; to oblige.
  • (v. t.) To violate; to ravish.
  • (v. t.) To produce in such a manner as to give an unnatural effect; as, a constrained voice.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Paul Johnson, the IFS director, said: “Osborne’s new fiscal charter is much more constraining than his previous fiscal rules.
  • (2) The parameters of the multiplet signal are consistent with the presence of a sterically constrained tyrosine phenoxyl radical.
  • (3) The variations in behavior and physiology across the year were considered in terms of factors constraining the timing of the natural reproductive pattern.
  • (4) First, chains are constrained by their inability to penetrate the boundary.
  • (5) The prepro form of ET-1 was inactive, suggesting that mature ET peptides are constrained in an inactive conformation within the preproET species.
  • (6) A method is presented for testing the equality of some or all (constrained or unconstrained) optima in a response surface analysis.
  • (7) The genius of a democracy governed by the rule of law, our democracy, is that it both empowers the majority through the ballot box, and constrains the majority, its government, so that it is bound by law.” Turnbull added: “Why does Daesh [another term for Islamic State] hate us?
  • (8) Often, a single, constrained peptide analogue can be designed, which will have many of the desired biological and biophysical properties, and will serve as a template.
  • (9) Because the rigor of the present day "scientific method" demands clearcut and reproducible results and investigations require predictable performance of the parasite in an evenly maintained host that is in a highly constrained environment, we should not wonder why we cannot produce the events of nature.
  • (10) In the first stage, the constrained random ordering of the stimuli is generated as specified by the user.
  • (11) Intrauterine influences which retard fetal weight gain may irrecoverably constrain the growth of the airways.
  • (12) "We have rhetorical pressure, which we are using, and we have the Seventh Fleet, which nobody wants to use, and in between our options are more constrained," he said.
  • (13) If correctional institutions constrain inmates' access to social benefits, means exist to protect incarcerated people's rights in health studies.
  • (14) Her ability to estimate time intervals and general time perspective was constrained by her impoverished store of knowledge for personal experiences.
  • (15) The immobilization successfully constrained the anteroinferior displacement of the maxilla and zygomatic bone on the fused side.
  • (16) In a previous study of push-off without plantar flexion it was shown that the transformation of knee angular velocity into translation of the body is constrained by the fact that velocity difference between hip and ankle has to reach its peak value a long time before the knee is extended.
  • (17) As there is no evidence for a close evolutionary link between kinesin and myosin, these and other similarities may represent convergence to set of common functional properties which are constrained by the requirements of protein structure and the use of ATP hydrolysis as a source of energy.
  • (18) By lengthening the ventricular effective refractory period, trains of conditioning stimuli could prevent or terminate tachycardias, but this possibility is constrained, at present, by the spatial limitations of the technique.
  • (19) The data suggest that the biological effects of RA may be constrained or augmented by differential regulation of its own receptor gene expression.
  • (20) A biological process serves as a source and its products are subject t] local dispersive fluid forces constrained by chaotic streamlines.

Distrain


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To press heavily upon; to bear down upon with violence; hence, to constrain or compel; to bind; to distress, torment, or afflict.
  • (v. t.) To rend; to tear.
  • (v. t.) To seize, as a pledge or indemnification; to take possession of as security for nonpayment of rent, the reparation of an injury done, etc.; to take by distress; as, to distrain goods for rent, or of an amercement.
  • (v. t.) To subject to distress; to coerce; as, to distrain a person by his goods and chattels.
  • (v. i.) To levy a distress.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Bailiffs will go in to distrain and evict, but no bailiffs knock for the missing billions "tax-planned" away at the top.