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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Strait \Strait\, adjective A variant of {Straight}. [Obs.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Strait \Strait\, adjective [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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Strait \Strait\, adverb Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.] --Shak.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Strait \Strait\, noun; pl. {Straits}. [OE. straight, streit, OF. estreit, estroit. See {Strait}, adjective]
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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Strait \Strait\, verb (used with an object) To put to difficulties. [Obs.] --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
strait
adjective: strict and severe; "strait is the gate"
noun
1: a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of water [syn: {sound}]
2: a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs [syn: {pass}, {straits}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
159 Moby Thesaurus words for "strait": angustifoliate, angustirostrate, angustisellate, angustiseptal, arm, armlet, bay, bayou, belt, bight, bind, boca, bottleneck, bound, bounded, box, breakers ahead, canal, cardhouse, cause for alarm, channel, circumscribed, climacteric, close, close-fitting, clutch, complication, conditioned, confined, confining, constricted, contingency, convergence of events, copyrighted, cove, cramp, cramped, creek, crisis, critical juncture, critical point, crossroads, crowded, crucial period, crunch, danger, dangerous ground, defile, demanding, difficult, dilemma, disciplined, embarrassing position, embarrassment, emergency, endangerment, estuary, euripus, exacting, exigency, extremity, fine how-do-you-do, finite, fjord, frith, gaping chasm, gathering clouds, gulf, gut, harbor, hazard, hell to pay, hinge, hobble, hot water, house of cards, how-do-you-do, imbroglio, imperilment, incapacious, incommodious, inlet, isthmian, isthmic, isthmus, jam, jeopardy, kyle, limited, limiting, loch, meager, menace, mess, mix, moderated, morass, mouth, narrow, narrow seas, narrows, natural harbor, near, neck, parlous straits, pass, patented, peril, perplexity, pickle, pinch, plight, predicament, prescribed, pretty pass, pretty pickle, pretty predicament, proscribed, push, quagmire, qualified, quicksand, reach, restricted, restricting, rigorous, risk, road, roads, roadstead, rocks ahead, rub, scant, scanty, scrape, slender, slough, sound, spot, squeeze, stew, sticky wicket, storm clouds, straitened, straits, swamp, thin ice, threat, throat, tight, tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, tricky spot, trouble, turn, turning, turning point, unholy mess
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