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