strait

adj

Etymology: From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

1. Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.

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

   “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; […]”

2. Righteous, strict.

   “to follow the strait and narrow”

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

3. Tight; close; tight-fitting.

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

4. Close; intimate; near; familiar.

   “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 […]”

5. 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. Parsimonious; stingy; mean.

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

7. Obsolete spelling of straight, now a misspelling of straight.

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

   “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”

adv

Etymology: From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

1. Strictly; rigorously.

   “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.”

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

1. A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

   “the Strait of Gibraltar”

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

2. A narrow pass, passage or street.

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

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

3. A neck of land; an isthmus.

   “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.”

4. A difficult position.

   “to be in dire straits”

   “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 […]”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of stringō (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

1. To confine; put to difficulties.

   “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 […]”

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

2. To tighten.