distraint
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of distraint
1720–30; distrain + -t, modeled on constraint, restraint
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I have now been threatened with "enforcement by distraint" as I am currently unable to pay the outstanding bill, which means they will take my car and computers.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 28, 2012
"And it was yesterday he put in the distraint?"
From The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton
Father once apologised to me—that was when there was a distraint out against him, if you know what that is—because he wasn't rich.
From The Story of Louie by Oliver [pseud.] Onions
Various gas and water companies have also statutory powers of distraint under special acts, but the policy of recent legislation has been to discourage any extension of such privileges.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" by Various
Innocent III enforces it by directing against ecclesiastics who were contumacious a sentence of distraint of goods without any right of appeal.
From The Church and the Empire, Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304 by D. J. (Dudley Julius) Medley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
