Strait

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Strait \Strait\, adv.
     Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.] --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Strait \Strait\, a.
     A variant of {Straight}. [Obs.]
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Strait \Strait\, a. [Compar. {Straiter}; superl. {Straitest}.]
     [OE. straight, streyt, streit, OF. estreit, estroit, F.
     ['e]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.
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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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     2. Tight; close; closely fitting. --Shak.
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     3. Close; intimate; near; familiar. [Obs.] "A strait degree
        of favor." --Sir P. Sidney.
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     4. 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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     5. Difficult; distressful; straited.
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              To make your strait circumstances yet straiter.
                                                    --Secker.
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     6. 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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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Strait \Strait\, v. t.
     To put to difficulties. [Obs.] --Shak.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Strait \Strait\, n.; pl. {Straits}. [OE. straight, streit, OF.
     estreit, estroit. See {Strait}, a.]
     1. 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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     2. 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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     3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]
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              A dark strait of barren land.         --Tennyson.
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     4. 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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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  strait
       adj : strict and severe; "strait is the gate"
       n 1: a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of
            water [syn: {sound}]
       2: a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs [syn: {pass},
           {straits}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  159 Moby Thesaurus words for "strait":
     angustifoliate, angustirostrate, angustisellate, angustiseptal,
     arm, armlet, bay, bayou, belt, bight, bind, boca, bottleneck,
     bound, bounded, box, breakers ahead, canal, cardhouse,
     cause for alarm, channel, circumscribed, climacteric, close,
     close-fitting, clutch, complication, conditioned, confined,
     confining, constricted, contingency, convergence of events,
     copyrighted, cove, cramp, cramped, creek, crisis,
     critical juncture, critical point, crossroads, crowded,
     crucial period, crunch, danger, dangerous ground, defile,
     demanding, difficult, dilemma, disciplined, embarrassing position,
     embarrassment, emergency, endangerment, estuary, euripus, exacting,
     exigency, extremity, fine how-do-you-do, finite, fjord, frith,
     gaping chasm, gathering clouds, gulf, gut, harbor, hazard,
     hell to pay, hinge, hobble, hot water, house of cards,
     how-do-you-do, imbroglio, imperilment, incapacious, incommodious,
     inlet, isthmian, isthmic, isthmus, jam, jeopardy, kyle, limited,
     limiting, loch, meager, menace, mess, mix, moderated, morass,
     mouth, narrow, narrow seas, narrows, natural harbor, near, neck,
     parlous straits, pass, patented, peril, perplexity, pickle, pinch,
     plight, predicament, prescribed, pretty pass, pretty pickle,
     pretty predicament, proscribed, push, quagmire, qualified,
     quicksand, reach, restricted, restricting, rigorous, risk, road,
     roads, roadstead, rocks ahead, rub, scant, scanty, scrape, slender,
     slough, sound, spot, squeeze, stew, sticky wicket, storm clouds,
     straitened, straits, swamp, thin ice, threat, throat, tight,
     tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, tricky spot, trouble, turn,
     turning, turning point, unholy mess