straiten (stratn)

t. [Formerly also straight en; .. 2. To confine; hem in. Feed high henceforth, man, and no more be straiten'd Within the limits of an empty patience. Ford , Fancies, iv. 1. Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 174. After the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. Acts xxvi. 5. Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue. Shak ., M. for M., ii. 1. 9. Led a streight life in continencie and austerity, and was therefore admired as a Prophet, and resorted to out of all parts. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 379. Bound them by so strait vows. 3. To draw tight; tighten. Tennyson, Coming of Arthur. My horses here detain, 7t. Sore; great; difficult; distre ing. Fix'd to the chariot by the straiten'd rein. At a strayte neede they can wele stanche bloode. Pope , Iliad, v. 325. Political Poems , etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 17. 4. To hamper; inconvenience; restrict. 8t. Hard-pre ed; straitened; hampered. Mother, I kindly thank you for your Orange pills you sent me. If you are not too straight of money, send me some such thing by the woman, and a pound or two of Almonds and Raisons. An other time having straight ned [var. straighted ] his enemies with scarcity of victuals. North , tr. of Plutarch, p. 495. New town men, being straitened for ground, sent some to Merimack to find a fit place to transplant themselves. Strype, in Ellis's Lit. Letters, p. 178. Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 159. To make your strait circumstances yet straiter. The shackles of an old love straiten'd him. Secker , Sermons, II. xi. Tennyson, Lance lot and Elaine. II. n. 1. A narrow pa or pa age. 5. To pre hard, as with want or difficulties of Thei rode forth the softe pas straite and clos till they any kind; distre ; afflict with pecuniary diff i IMG:content-2243.png:[blocks in formation] 2. Specifically, a narrow pa age of water connecting two bodies of water: often used in the plural: as, the Strait or Straits of Gibraltar; the Straits of Magellan; the Straits of Dover. Abbreviated St. -3. A strip of land between two bodies of water; an isthmus. A broken chancel with a broken cro , That stood on a dark strait of barren land: On one side lay the Ocean, and on one Lay a great water. Tennyson, Pa ing of Arthur. 41. A narrow alley in London. Look into any angle of the town, the Streights , or the Bermudas, where the quarrelling le on is read, and how do they entertain the time, but with bottle-ale and toB. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. 6. bacco? Cant names then given to the places frequented by bullies, knights of the post, and fencing masters. These Streights consisted of a nest of obscure courts, alleys, and avenues, running between the bottom of St. Martin's Lane, Half-Moon, and Chandos Street. Gifford's Note at "Bermudas" in the above pa age. 5. A tight or narrow place; difficulty; distre ; need; case of nece ity: often in the plural. Finding himself out of straits , he will revert to his cus Bacon , Expense (ed. 1887). toms. The straits and needs of Cat i line being such As he must fight with one of the two armies. B. Jonson, Cat i line, v. 6. Take me; I'll serve you better in a strait . Tennyson, Prince , i. 6t. pl. Cloth of single width, as opposed to broad cloth: a term in use in the sixteenth century and later. - Between the Straits, through and beyond the Straits of Gibraltar: used by American sailors with reference to a voyage to Mediterranean ports: as, he has made two voyages between the Straits. - Perineal strait. See perineal. - Straits of the pelvis, in obstet., the openings of the pelvic canal, distinguished as the superior and inferior straits. See pelvis. - Straits oil. See oil.