Strain (1 syl.)
.To strain courtesy. To stand upon ceremony. Here, strain is to stretch, as parchment is strained on a drum-head. When strain means to filter, the idea is pressing or squeezing through a canvas or woollen bag.
Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. To make much fuss about little peccadillos, but commit offences of real magnitude. “Strain at” is strain out or off (Greek, di-ulizo). The allusion is to the practice of filtering wine for fear of swallowing an insect, which was “unclean.” Tyndale has “strain out” in his version. Our expression “strain at” is a corruption of strain-ut, “ut” being the Saxon form of out, retained in the words ut-most, utter, uttermost, etc.
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