Definition of "distrain"

distrain

/dɪˈstɹeɪn/

verb
third-person singular simple present distrains, present participle distraining, simple past and past participle distrained
1. (obsolete) To squeeze, press, embrace; to constrain, oppress.
  Quotations
  But when he heard her answeres loth, he knew / Some secret sorrow did her heart distraine […]
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
  Thus spake the Prince, and gently 'gan distrain / Now him, now her, between his friendly arms.
  1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XII, xii
2. (law, transitive, obsolete) To force (someone) to do something by seizing their property.
3. (law, intransitive) To seize somebody's property in place of, or to force, payment of a debt.
4. (obsolete) To pull off, tear apart.
  Quotations
  For that same net so cunningly was wound, / That neither guile, nor force might it distraine.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie