strain at

strain at (something)

To exert the utmost force against some kind of resistance or barrier. The bank president complained that they had been straining at the restrictive regulations, but consumer advocates pointed out that it had led to a massive nationwide reduction in personal debt. The startled cattle strained at the gates until they eventually burst through and began stampeding through the farm.
See also: strain
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

strain at

v.
To pull or push on something, trying to make it yield or give way: The dog barked viciously and strained at its leash. The angry crowd strained at the barriers.
See also: strain
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • strain at (something)
  • break (one's) balls
  • break balls to do something
  • break one’s balls
  • break one’s balls to do something
  • break one's balls
  • break somebody's balls
  • break someone’s balls
  • break someone's balls
  • break your balls
References in classic literature
"They'll bleat and baa, dona like goats, Gorge down black sheep, and strain at motes, Array their backs in fine black coats, Then seize their negroes by their throats, And choke, for heavenly union.
The researchers divided the subjects into four groups: people with low job strain at both the times; people with high job strain at both times; people with low job strain at the first time and high job strain at the second; and people who initially had high job strain and then reported low job strain.
All experiments were conducted under constant stress with symmetrical cyclic controlled shear strain at room temperature.
An experimental study was carried out on multiaxial ratcheting behavior of vulcanized natural rubber under constant axial stress with cyclic controlled shear strain at room temperature.
When one compresses an elastomer to a given strain at room temperature, the initial load will depend on the rate at which it is compressed, after which the load will decrease over time to an equilibrium elastic load.
Automated electron backscatter diffraction measurements have revealed both the extent of the elastic strain field in the neighborhood of an oxide growth front as well as the magnitude of elastic strain at any position in that field.
However, all nine rats that received large doses of one live Lactobacillus fermentum strain at the wound site during surgery remained free of the pathogen.
In order to relate the elastic effect, to the strain and strain rate, a derivative parameter is introduced, being the elastic fraction, EF, of the local strain at break.
At strains above the yield point, the curve is calculated assuming that he elastic strain during plastic deformation is constant and equals the strain at the yield point, or [[epsilon].sub.i,e] = [[epsion].sub.y].
In such a case, the stress-strain relation can be inverted and strain at time t is characterized by:
These curves illustrate the danger of drawing conclusions based only on the values of S-300, tensile strength and strain at break.
mean strain at three strain widths of 3%, 5%, and 7%, respectively, at different numbers of cycles.
This shows a strong relation between the strain at failure of an elastomer and an increase in the A/I ratio.
[epsilon] = [sigma]/E ([1-e.sup.-t/[tau]) where: t = time; [tau] = relaxation time; [epsilon] = the strain at any given time
Failures are often related to high amplitude strain at resonance, and seldom related to high amplitude inputs at frequencies well removed from the isolator natural frequency.