GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 5 definitions

1.       
   Strait , a. A variant of Straight. [Obs.]
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2.       
   Strait , a. [Compar. Straiter ; superl. Straitest.] [OE. straight, streyt, streit, OF. estreit, estroit, F. étroit, from L. strictus drawn together, close, tight, p. p. of stringere to draw tight. See 2nd Strait, and cf. Strict.]
   Narrow; not broad.
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   Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
   Matt. vii. 14.
   
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   Too strait and low our cottage doors.
   Emerson.
   
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   Tight; close; closely fitting.
   Shak.
   
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   Close; intimate; near; familiar. [Obs.] “A strait degree of favor.”  
   Sir P. Sidney.
   
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   Strict; scrupulous; rigorous.
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   Some certain edicts and some strait decrees.
   Shak.
   
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   The straitest sect of our religion.
   Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.).
   
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   Difficult; distressful; straited.
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   To make your strait circumstances yet straiter.
   Secker.
   
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   Parsimonious; niggargly; mean. [Obs.]
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   I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait,
   And so ingrateful, you deny me that.
   Shak.
   
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3.       
   Strait , adv. Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.]
   Shak.
   
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4.       
   Strait, n.; pl. Straits . [OE. straight, streit, OF. estreit, estroit. See Strait, a.]
   A narrow pass or passage.
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   He brought him through a darksome narrow strait
   To a broad gate all built of beaten gold.
   Spenser.
   
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   Honor travels in a strait so narrow
   Where one but goes abreast.
   Shak.
   
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    Specifically: (Geog.) A (comparatively) narrow passageway connecting two large bodies of water; -- often in the plural; as, the strait, or straits, of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the strait, or straits, of Mackinaw.
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   We steered directly through a large outlet which they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles broad.
   De Foe.
   
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   A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]
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   A dark strait of barren land.
   Tennyson.
   
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   Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt; distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in the plural; as, reduced to great straits.
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   For I am in a strait betwixt two.
   Phil. i. 23.
   
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   Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever.
   South.
   
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   Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts.
   Broome.
   
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5.       
   Strait, v. t. To put to difficulties. [Obs.]
   Shak.
   
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