strait - What does it mean?
'strait' hits on the web
You may have been searching for a specific social media @strait profile or the tag #strait
Definition of 'strait'English
Adjective
( er)
(archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.
* Emerson
- too strait and low our cottage doors
* 1866 , , Aholibah , lines 53-55
- Sweet oil was poured out on thy head
- And ran down like cool rain between
- The strait close locks it melted in.
* 1900 , , To One in Bedlam , lines 3-5
- Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line
- His strait , caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,
- Pedant and pitiful.
(archaic) Righteous, strict.
- to follow the strait and narrow
* 1597 , , IV. iii. 79:
- some certain edicts and some strait decrees
* Bible, Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.)
- the straitest sect of our religion
(obsolete) Tight; close; tight-fitting.
* 1613 , , III. vi. 86:
- Is not this piece too strait ? / No, no, 'tis well.
(obsolete) Close; intimate; near; familiar.
* Sir Philip Sidney
- a strait degree of favour
(obsolete) Difficult; distressful; straited.
* Secker
- to make your strait' circumstances yet ' straiter
(obsolete) Parsimonious; niggardly; mean.
* 1596 , , V. vii. 42:
- I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait , / And so ingrateful, you deny me that.
Usage notes
The adjective is often confused with straight.
Derived terms
* straitjacket
* strait-laced
Noun
( en-noun)
( wikipedia)
(geography) A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
- The Strait of Gibraltar
* De Foe
- We steered directly through a large outlet which they call a strait , though it be fifteen miles broad.
A narrow pass or passage.
* Spenser
- He brought him through a darksome narrow strait / To a broad gate all built of beaten gold.
* 1602 , , III. iii. 154:
- For honour travels in a strait so narrow / Where one but goes abreast.
A neck of land; an isthmus.
* Tennyson
- a dark strait of barren land
A difficult position (often used in plural).
- to be in dire straits
* South
- Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever.
* Broome
- Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts.
Derived terms
* dire straits
Verb
( en-verb)
(obsolete) To put to difficulties.
- (Shakespeare)
Adverb
( en-adv)
(obsolete) Strictly; rigorously.
* 1593 , , III. ii. 20:
- Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloucester
Anagrams
*
|