narrow
verb
- make narrower
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L324343 on Wikidata ↗adjective
- with smal width
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈnæɹəʊ/ / /ˈnæɹoʊ/ / /ˈnɛɹoʊ/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English narow, narowe, narewe, narwe, naru, from Old English nearu (“narrow, strait, confined, constricted, not spacious, limited, petty; limited, poor, restricted; oppressive, causing anxiety (of that which restricts free action of body or mind), causing or accompanied by difficulty, hardship, oppressive; oppressed, not having free action; strict, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *naru, from Proto-Germanic *narwaz (“constricted, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ner- (“to turn, bend, twist, constrict”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian naar, noar, noor, nåår (“narrow”), Saterland Frisian noar (“narrow”), Dutch naar (“nasty, scary; sickening, unpleasant”), Danish and Swedish nor (“narrow strait”); also Sanskrit नृत् (nṛt, “to dance; act on stage, represent”).
- Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
“a narrow hallway”
“She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.”
- Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
“The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.”
- Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.
“a narrow interpretation”
- Contracted; of limited scope; bigoted
“a narrow mind”
“narrow views”
- Having a small margin or degree.
“a narrow escape”
“The Republicans won by a narrow majority.”
- Limited as to means; straitened
“narrow circumstances”
- Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
“a very narrow […] and stinted charity”
- Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
“But first with narrow search I must walk round / This garden, and no corner leave unspied.”
- Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.
- Of or supporting only those text characters that can fit into the traditional 8-bit representation.
“a narrow character; a narrow stream”
noun
Etymology: From Middle English narow, narowe, narewe, narwe, naru, from Old English nearu (“narrow, strait, confined, constricted, not spacious, limited, petty; limited, poor, restricted; oppressive, causing anxiety (of that which restricts free action of body or mind), causing or accompanied by difficulty, hardship, oppressive; oppressed, not having free action; strict, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *naru, from Proto-Germanic *narwaz (“constricted, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ner- (“to turn, bend, twist, constrict”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian naar, noar, noor, nåår (“narrow”), Saterland Frisian noar (“narrow”), Dutch naar (“nasty, scary; sickening, unpleasant”), Danish and Swedish nor (“narrow strait”); also Sanskrit नृत् (nṛt, “to dance; act on stage, represent”).
- A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.
“the narrows of New York harbor”
“Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English narwen (“to narrow”); see there for more details, but ultimately derived from the noun.
- To reduce in width or extent; to contract.
“We need to narrow the search.”
- To get narrower.
“The road narrows.”
- To partially lower one's eyelids in a way usually taken to suggest a defensive, aggressive or penetrating look.
“He stepped in front of me, narrowing his eyes to slits.”
“She wagged her finger in his face, and her eyes narrowed.”
- To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
- To convert to a data type that cannot hold as many distinct values.
“to narrow an int variable to a short variable”