Forms: 4 streignour, streyngoure, -your, ? streinor, stryn(n)or, 4–5 streynour(e, straynour(e, strenour, 5 straynowr(e, -woure, streynȝour, strener, strenyor, -yowre, streneyour, strynour, 5–6 streyner, strenȝoure, 6 streynyowr, straygner, strenear, -ere, -yer, 7 streiner, 5–7 strayner, 6– strainer. [f. STRAIN v.1 + -ER1; but the early forms suggest that there may have been an AF. *estreignour, f. estreign- STRAIN v.1]
1. A utensil or device for straining, filtering or sifting; a filter, sieve, screen, or the like.
1326–7. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 15. In 20 ulnis linee tele pro naprouns et streyngoures. Ibid. (1348–9), 43. In Streynyours.
139[?]. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 22/3. Pro xl virges de streynours ad iij d., x s.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 9. Þorowgh a strynour þou hom strene.
c. 1481. Caxton, Dialogues, 8. For to make … sauses thorugh the strayner.
1527. Luton Trin. Guild (1906), 188. Payd for A gelebag and a strenere v d.
1533. in Kal. & Inv. Exch. (1836), II. 294. Item a strayner of golde for orrenges.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 41/2. Then straygne them through a clothe or straygner.
1640. T. Brugis, Marrow of Physicke, II. 155. Let it run through a woollen strainer.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 216. Pour it … into a Strainer of fine thin Linen, or of twisted Hair.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, x. The silver strainer, on which … the lady of the house placed the tea-leaves.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 254. Rose, or Strainer, a plate of copper or lead perforated with small holes, sometimes placed upon the heel of a pump to prevent any thing being sucked in which might choke the pump.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., xi. 123. The ejector is surrounded by a strainer and placed in an ejector tank.
1894. Outing, XXIV. 435/1. A basket of gravel and dirt is thrown into a bamboo strainer.
b. Applied to natural structures or processes that perform the function of filtering.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 93. The Cause of Orient Colours in Birds … is by the Finenesse of the Strainer.
1666. G. Harvey, Morbus Angl., xxii. (1672), 51. The office of the Lungs is only to serve the heart in the capacity of Aereal strainers, to strain the Air.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1756), I. 12. All the little Glands and Strainers of the Body.
1772. Pennant, Tours in Scot. (1774), 169. The apertures to the gills very long, and furnished with Strainers.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 826. Seeing that in some whales there are about three hundred plates composing the outer row on each side of the mouth, the reader may form some idea of the extent of this enormous strainer.
1880. Huxley, Crayfish, ii. 53. So is the cuticle of the stomach calcified … to give rise … to a filter or strainer, whereby the nutritive juices are separated from the innutritious hard parts of the food.
c. transf. and fig.
1621–31. Laud, Serm. (1847), 44. The blessings … come not immediately from God to the people,… but they are strained … through the man, and therefore must relish a little of the strainer, him and his mortality.
1648. Winyard, Midsummer-Moon, 4. Hee is a strainer, retaines all the dregges, and clarifies the University as milke and whites of eggs doth Ippocras.
1666. T. Watson, Godly Man’s Pict., 255. He put his body to no other use, but to be a strainer for meat and drink to run thorow.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, II. 189. Lust, thro’ some certain Strainers well refin’d, Is gentle love.
1813. Examiner, 26 April, 266/1. To them may be traced, through different strainers, almost all the fictions of European romance.
2. A device for stretching or tightening.
1527. in Archæologia, XXXVI. 222. Item syx banner clothys and foure streyners and eyght pools too the same.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 396/2. A [Sadlers’] Strainer … is made of Wood [etc.] … with this the Girth web is fastned and drawn streat upon the Sadle trees; or in such places where the Girth requires straining.
1883. J. Scott, Farm Roads, etc. 83. The wires are strained by a portable strainer.
3. (See quot.)
1891. Century Dict., Strainer.… In carriage building: (a) A reinforcing strip or button at the back of a panel. (b) Canvas glued to the back of a panel to prevent warping or cracking.
4. Comb.: † strainer-cloth, a cloth used for filtering; strainer-vine, Luffa acutangula (Grisebach, Flora W. Ind. Islands, 788).
1444. Compota Domest. (Abbotsf. Club), 21. Pro bultyngclothes strenourclothes [etc.].
1483. Caxton, Golden Leg., 432 b/2. He … ware for a Shyrte a Stamyn or Streyner clothe.
1537. in Myrr. Our Ladye, Introd. 31. Strayner cloth j pece.
