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
He is now threatened with distraint for poor rates, church rates, and land-tax.
From The Battle of The Press As Told in the Story of the Life of Richard Carlile By His Daughter, Theophila Carlile Campbell by Campbell, Theophila Carlile
To make sure that not one should escape, the tax was held as a lien upon his labor, and the employer was under distraint to pay it.
From Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860 by Blaine, James Gillespie
And now, that the Fiction might follow Nature, continued he,—"fictio sequitur naturam,"—it behoved them to lay hold of said Yule-hens, by direct personal distraint.
From Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3) Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter by Carlyle, Thomas
At Michaelmas, 1817, the Duke of Somerset had made a distraint for rent.
From The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volumes 1 to 4 by Dent, John Charles
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.
