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Strait
Definitions
- 1 Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close. archaic
"Sweet oil was poured out on thy head And ran down like cool rain between The strait close locks it melted in."
- 2 Righteous, strict. archaic
"to follow the strait and narrow"
- 3 Tight; close; tight-fitting. obsolete
"Palamon. […] Stay a little, Is not this peece too streight? Arcite. No, no, tis well."
- 4 Close; intimate; near; familiar. obsolete
"After the noble Prince Leonatus had by his fathers death succeeded in the kingdome of Galatia, he (forgetting all former iniuries) had receiued that naughtie Plexirtus into a streight degree of fauour […]"
- 5 Difficult; distressful. obsolete
"18th c., Thomas Secker, Sermons on Several Subjects, 2nd edition, 1771, Volume III, Sermon XI, p. 253, But to make your strait Circumstances yet straiter, for the Sake of idle Gratifications, and distress yourselves in Necessaries, only to indulge in Trifles and Vanities, delicate Food, shewish Dress, ensnaring Diversions, is every Way wrong."
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- 6 Parsimonious; stingy; mean. obsolete
"[…] I do not ask you much, I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait And so ingrateful, you deny me that."
- 7 Obsolete spelling of straight, now a misspelling of straight. alt-of, obsolete
"A strait Line over a Vowel denotes the Omission of the Letter m or n following: quā--quam‖nō--non‖[…] […] The strait Line over m in the Middle of a Word denotes the Omission of the Letter n following: om̄es--omnes‖om̄ia--omnia"
- 1 narrow wordnet
- 1 Strictly; rigorously. obsolete
"Lords, take your places; and, I pray you all, Proceed no straiter ’gainst our uncle Gloucester Than from true evidence of good esteem He be approved in practise culpable."
- 1 A surname.
- 1 A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
"the Strait of Gibraltar"
- 2 a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of water wordnet
- 3 A narrow pass, passage or street.
"He brought him through a darksom narrow strayt, To a broad gate all built of beaten gold:"
- 4 a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs wordnet
- 5 A neck of land; an isthmus.
"The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him, Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights, And bore him to a chapel nigh the field, A broken chancel with a broken cross, That stood on a dark strait of barren land."
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- 6 A difficult position. in-plural, often
"to be in dire straits"
- 1 To confine; put to difficulties. obsolete, transitive
"After Bardus, the Celtes […] were in short tyme, and with small labour broughte vnder the subiection of the Giaunt Albion, the sonne of Neptune, who altering the state of things here in this yland, straited the name of Celtica and the Celtes within the boundes of Gallia […]"
- 2 To tighten. obsolete, transitive
Etymology
From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.
From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.
From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.
From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.
See also for "strait"
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