Definitions for: Strait


[n] a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of water
[n] a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs
[adj] (archaic) strict and severe; "strait is the gate"



Webster (1913) Definition: Strait, a.
A variant of Straight. [Obs.]


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.

Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
--Matt. vii.
14.

Too strait and low our cottage doors. --Emerson.

2. Tight; close; closely fitting. --Shak.

3. Close; intimate; near; familiar. [Obs.] ``A strait degree
of favor.'' --Sir P. Sidney.

4. Strict; scrupulous; rigorous.

Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. --Shak.

The straitest sect of our religion. --Acts xxvi. 5
(Rev. Ver.).

5. Difficult; distressful; straited.

To make your strait circumstances yet straiter.
--Secker.

6. Parsimonious; niggargly; mean. [Obs.]

I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait, And so
ingrateful, you deny me that. --Shak.


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


Strait, n.; pl. Straits. [OE. straight, streit, OF.
estreit, estroit. See Strait, a.]
1. A narrow pass or passage.

He brought him through a darksome narrow strait To a
broad gate all built of beaten gold. --Spenser.

Honor travels in a strait so narrow Where one but
goes abreast. --Shak.

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.

We steered directly through a large outlet which
they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles
broad. --De Foe.

3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]

A dark strait of barren land. --Tennyson.

4. Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt;
distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in
the plural; as, reduced to great straits.

For I am in a strait betwixt two. --Phil. i. 23.

Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate
under any calamity or strait whatsoever. --South.

Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural
infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that
time in his thoughts. --Broome.


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

Synonyms: narrow, pass, sound, straits

See Also: Bering Strait, Bosporus, channel, Dardanelles, desperate straits, dire straits, East River, Golden Gate, Hellespont, Korea Strait, Korean Strait, Menai Strait, narrow, Pas-de-Calais, situation, Solent, state of affairs, Strait of Calais, Strait of Dover, Strait of Georgia, Strait of Gibraltar, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Magellan, Strait of Messina, Strait of Ormuz, the Solent

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