strait

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Narrow

   Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.

   • Sweet oil was poured out on thy head And ran down like cool rain between The strait close locks it melted in.
   • Where shall we keep the holiday, And duly greet the entering May? Too strait and low our cottage doors, And all unmeet our carpet floors; […]
2. 2

   Righteous, strict.

   • to follow the strait and narrow
   • [he] takes on him to reform Some certain edicts and some strait decrees That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,
   • […] after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
3. 3

   Tight

   Tight; close; tight-fitting.

   • Palamon. […] Stay a little, Is not this peece too streight? Arcite. No, no, tis well.
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   1. 4

      Close

      Close; intimate; near; familiar.

      • 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 […]
   2. 5

      Difficult

      Difficult; distressful.

   3. 6

      Parsimonious

      Parsimonious; stingy; mean.

      • […] I do not ask you much, I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait And so ingrateful, you deny me that.
   4. 7

      Obsolete spelling of straight, now a misspelling of straight.

      • He was of stature somewhat under the middle size, but strait and well shap'd.
      • 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
   5. 8

      A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

      • the Strait of Gibraltar
      • […] we steered directly through a large Out-let, which they call a Streight, tho’ it be fifteen Miles broad […]
   6. 9

      A narrow pass, passage or street.

      • He brought him through a darksom narrow strayt, To a broad gate all built of beaten gold:
      • For honour travels in a strait so narrow, Where one but goes abreast:
   7. 10

      A neck of land

      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.
   8. 11

      A difficult position.

      • to be in dire straits
      • Plutarch is of opinion that this sleep of Ulysses was feigned; and that he made use of the pretence of natural infirmity to conceal the streights he was in at that time in his thoughts […]
   9. 12

      To confine

      To confine; put to difficulties.

      • […] If your lass Interpretation should abuse and call this Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited For a reply […]
   10. 13

       To tighten.

   11. 14

       Strictly

       Strictly; rigorously.

       • 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.
   12. 15

       A surname.

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