distraint

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun the seizure and holding of property as security for payment of a debt or satisfaction of a claim

From distrain, on the model of such pairs as constrain, constraint and restrain, restraint.

When Charles, distracted by the news of the distraint, returned home, Emma had just gone out. — Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
"To pay the distraints of Isaac and Jacob Cannon," he murmured, softly, "would keep a poor slaver poor. — The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times, George Alfred Townsend
About this time the Stratford Records notice how a John Shakespeare was worried by suits brought against him by John Brown, in whose favour a writ of distraint was issued against Shakespeare in 1586. — Shakespeare's family, C. C. (Charlotte Carmichael) Stopes

distress

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