Alternative forms

• streit (obsolete)
• streight (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#STRAITCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#STRAIT streit, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#STRAIT estreit (modern form étroit), from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#STRAIT strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strictCategory:English doublets#STRAIT.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stɹeɪt/Category:English 1-syllable words#STRAITCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#STRAIT

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#STRAIT
• Rhymes: -eɪtCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪt#STRAITCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪt/1 syllable#STRAIT
• Homophone: straightCategory:English terms with homophones#STRAIT

Adjective

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)Category:English lemmas#STRAITCategory:English adjectives#STRAITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STRAITCategory:Pages with entries#STRAITCategory:Pages with 1 entry#STRAIT

1. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#STRAIT) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.
   • 1866, Algernon Swinburne, “Aholibah”, in Poems and Ballads‎, London: John Camden Hotten, page 311:

     Sweet oil was poured out on thy head
     And ran down like cool rain between
     The strait close locks it melted in.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

   • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “May-Day”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, pages 14–15:

     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; […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

   • 1894, Ernest Dowson, “To One in Bedlam” in The Second Book of The Rhymers’ Club, London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, p. 35,

     Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line

     His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,

     Pedant and pitiful.

2. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#STRAIT) Righteous, strict.

   to follow the strait and narrowCategory:English terms with usage examples#STRAIT

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     [he] takes on him to reform
     Some certain edicts and some strait decrees
     That lie too heavy on the commonwealth,

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 26:5:

     […] after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

3. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STRAIT) Tight; close; tight-fitting.
   • 1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, “The Two Noble Kinsmen”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act III, scene vii:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

4. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STRAIT) Close; intimate; near; familiar.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:

     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 […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

5. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STRAIT) Difficult; distressful.
   • 18th c., Thomas Secker, Sermons on Several Subjects, 2nd edition, 1771, Volume III, Sermon XI, p. 253,

     But to make your strait Circumstances yet straiter, for the Sake of idle Gratifications, and distress yourselves in Necessaries, only to indulge in Trifles and Vanities, delicate Food, shewish Dress, ensnaring Diversions, is every Way wrong.

6. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STRAIT) Parsimonious; stingy; mean.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vii]:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

7. Obsolete spelling of straightCategory:English obsolete forms#STRAIT, now a misspelling of straightCategory:English misspellings#STRAIT.
   • 1690, “Preface to the Reader”, in A Full and True Relation of the Great and Wonderful Revolution That Hapned Lately in the Kingdom of Siam in the East-Indies, London: Randal Taylor, page ii:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

   • 1810, Record Commission, The Statutes of the Realm. Printed by Command of His Majesty King George the Third in pursuance of an Address of the House of Commons of Great Britain. From Original Records and Manuscripts., volume 1, page lxiii:

     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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

Noun

strait (plural straits)Category:English lemmas#STRAITCategory:English nouns#STRAITCategory:English countable nouns#STRAITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STRAITCategory:Pages with entries#STRAITCategory:Pages with 1 entry#STRAIT

2. (geographyCategory:en:Geography#STRAIT) A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

   the Strait of Gibraltar

   Category:English terms with usage examples#STRAIT

   • 1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC, pages 232–233:

     […] we steered directly through a large Out-let, which they call a Streight, tho’ it be fifteen Miles broad […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

3. A narrow pass, passage or street.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 282:

     He brought him through a darksom narrow strayt,
     To a broad gate all built of beaten gold:

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

   • c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
     Where one but goes abreast:

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

4. A neck of land; an isthmus.
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 4:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

5. (often in the plural) A difficult position.

   to be in dire straitsCategory:English terms with usage examples#STRAIT

   • 1684, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at Westminster-Abbey” in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bennett, 1692, p. 420,

     […] let no man, who owns the Belief of a Providence, grow desperate or forlorn, under any Calamity or Strait whatsoever […]

   • 1725, Homer, “(please specify the book or chapter of the Odyssey)”, in [William Broome, Elijah Fenton, Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 19:

     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 […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

Verb

strait (third-person singular simple present straits, present participle straiting, simple past and past participle straited)Category:English lemmas#STRAITCategory:English verbs#STRAITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STRAITCategory:Pages with entries#STRAITCategory:Pages with 1 entry#STRAIT

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STRAIT, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#STRAIT) To confine; put to difficulties.
   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed’s Chronicles‎, volume 1, London: The Historie of Englande, page 3:

     After Bardus, the Celtes […] were in short tyme, and with small labour broughte vnder the subiection of the Giaunt Albion, the sonne of Neptune, who altering the state of things here in this yland, straited the name of Celtica and the Celtes within the boundes of Gallia […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

   • 1658, William Sanderson, A Compleat History of the Life and Raigne of King Charles‎, London: Humphrey Moseley, et al, page 885:

     The King, Duke of York, Prince Rupert and Maurice are still at Oxford closely surrounded by the Parliaments Forces, and the other not well resolving what course to take, all their Horse being about Faringdon, in expectation of the Lord Ashley with his Foot to joyn in a Body, if they be not prevented by Colonel Fleetwood and Rainsborough, straiting and allarming Oxford very often […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

2. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STRAIT, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#STRAIT) To tighten.

Adverb

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)Category:English lemmas#STRAITCategory:English adverbs#STRAITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STRAITCategory:Pages with entries#STRAITCategory:Pages with 1 entry#STRAIT

1. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STRAIT) Strictly; rigorously.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STRAIT

See also

• Category:en:Straits

Further reading

• strait on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “strait”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “strait”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Rattis, artist, atrist, ittars, star it, strati, traits