STRAITING

Verb

straiting

present participle of strait

Anagrams

• attirings, striating

Source: Wiktionary


STRAIT

Strait, a.

Definition: A variant of Straight. [Obs.]

Strait, a. [Compar. Straiter; superl. Straitest.] Etym: [OE. straight, streyt, streit, OF. estreit, estroit, F. Ă©troit, from L. strictus drawn together, close, tight, p.p. of stringere to draw tight. See 2nd Strait, and cf. Strict.]

1. Narrow; not broad. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matt. vii. 14. Too strait and low our cottage doors. Emerson.

2. Tight; close; closely fitting. Shak.

3. Close; intimate; near; familiar. [Obs.] "A strait degree of favor." Sir P. Sidney.

4. Strict; scrupulous; rigorous. Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. Shak. The straitest sect of our religion. Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.).

5. Difficult; distressful; straited. To make your strait circumstances yet straiter. Secker.

6. Parsimonious; niggargly; mean. [Obs.] I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait, And so ingrateful, you deny me that. Shak.

Strait, adv.

Definition: Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.] Shak.

Strait, n.; pl. Straits. Etym: [OE. straight, streit, OF. estreit, estroit. See Strait, a.]

1. A narrow pass or passage. He brought him through a darksome narrow strait To a broad gate all built of beaten gold. Spenser. Honor travels in a strait so narrow Where one but goes abreast. Shak.

2. Specifically: (Geog.)

Definition: 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. We steered directly through a large outlet which they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles broad. De Foe.

3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.] A dark strait of barren land. Tennyson.

4. Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt; distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in the plural; as, reduced to great straits. For I am in a strait betwixt two. Phil. i. 23. Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever. South. Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts. Broome.

Strait, v. t.

Definition: To put to difficulties. [Obs.] Shak.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

19 November 2024

SALTWORT

(noun) bushy plant of Old World salt marshes and sea beaches having prickly leaves; burned to produce a crude soda ash


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Coffee Trivia

Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.

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