Strait | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Strait (strāt), a.

adjective

(strāt), a. [compar. STRAITER; superl. STRAIT-EST.] [O. Fr. estreit, estroit, strait, N. Fr. étroit, Pr. estreit, Sp. estrecho, It. stretto, from Lat. strictus, drawn together, close, tight, p. p. of stringere, to draw tight. See STRAIN.]

Sense 1. Narrow; close; 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.

Sense 2. Close; intimate; as, a strait degree of favor. [Rare.] Sidney.

Sense 3. Strict; rigorous. [Obs.]

He now, forsooth, takes on him to reform Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. Shak.

Sense 4. Difficult; distressful. “To make your strait circumstances yet straiter.” Seeker.

Sense 5. Straight; not crooked. [Obs. and improper.]

Strāit, n.

noun

n.; pl. STRAITS. [L. Lat. strictum, a narrow way, a mountain defile. See supra.]

Sense 1. (Geog.) A narrow pass or passage, either in a mountain or in the ocean, between continents or other portions of land; as, the straits of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the straits of Dover; — chiefly used in the plural.

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

Sense 2. Distress; difficulty; distressing necessity. [Formerly written also streight.]

Let no man, who owns a Providence, become 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.

Strāit, v. t.

verbtransitive

To put to difficulties. [Obs.] Shak.