Sentence examples similar to strained portrait from inspiring English sources
But a portrait of a distant and strained relationship emerged from interviews with more than two dozen aides, political consultants, union leaders and friends of both men, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to anger either man.
It also was a portrait that made no reference to the strained relationship between Allen and McCloughan that grew more pronounced as the season unfolded, highlighted by disagreements on personnel decisions, what appeared to be professional jealousy and at least one profane rebuke.
And shockingly for Mr. DeLillo, some of the details -- like the proliferation of white limos like Eric's that swarm the city's street -- feel strained, neither heightened and odd enough to create a satiric portrait of New York nor dead-on accurate enough to capture a real moment in time.
The movie, she added, "doesn't impose any false closure on its wistful portraits, nor does it contrive more than a few strained coincidences (like Adrian's reappearance) to create a conventional story".
But those drawn over the last half-century to his high, strained voice and doggedly affecting ballads will find plenty here to flesh out their portrait of a man who prefers amplifiers with valves and cars with carburettors, and resents the way today's music is marketed "like a cool pastime or a toy, not a message to the soul".
Has this strained relations?
That seems a strained construction.
This reading is most strained.
She gives a strained laugh.
Willing if strained service.
