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51 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 : [ gcide ]


  Strait \Strait\, a.
     A variant of Straight. [Obs.]
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 : [ 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.0.44 : [ gcide ]


  Strait \Strait\, adv.
     Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.] --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 : [ 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 The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 : [ gcide ]


  Strait \Strait\, v. t.
     To put to difficulties. [Obs.] --Shak.
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