Words similar to straining

Example sentences for: straining

How can you use “straining” in a sentence? Here are some example sentences to help you improve your vocabulary:

Leaning into the collar is working hard: imagine a horse straining against the collar to pull a heavy load.
She's all blithe insouciance--a wonderful parody of proper English maidenhood straining to burst its corsets and grab a piece of jungle hunk.
Unlike Forbes and Perot, Weld never seems to be straining to garner the public's approval.
Some of the saddest aspects of the 9/11 story are the outstanding efforts of so many individual officials straining, often without success, against the boundaries of the possible.
Hoffman, for all his straining after naturalistic verisimilitude, remained dependent on acting-class exercises, while Olivier, for all his years of training, had so deeply integrated technique into his being that, like a classical pianist, he could stop thinking about it the moment he began performing.