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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Strait \Strait\, adv.
Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.] --Shak.
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Strait \Strait\, n.; pl. {Straits}. [OE. straight, streit, OF.
estreit, estroit. See {Strait}, a.]
1. A narrow pass or passage.
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He brought him through a darksome narrow strait
To a broad gate all built of beaten gold. --Spenser.
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Honor travels in a strait so narrow
Where one but goes abreast. --Shak.
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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.
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We steered directly through a large outlet which
they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles
broad. --De Foe.
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3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]
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A dark strait of barren land. --Tennyson.
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4. Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt;
distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in
the plural; as, reduced to great straits.
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For I am in a strait betwixt two. --Phil. i. 23.
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Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate
under any calamity or strait whatsoever. --South.
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Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural
infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that
time in his thoughts. --Broome.
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Strait \Strait\, a.
A variant of {Straight}. [Obs.]
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Strait \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.
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Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
--Matt. vii.
14.
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Too strait and low our cottage doors. --Emerson.
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2. Tight; close; closely fitting. --Shak.
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3. Close; intimate; near; familiar. [Obs.] "A strait degree
of favor." --Sir P. Sidney.
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4. Strict; scrupulous; rigorous.
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Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. --Shak.
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The straitest sect of our religion. --Acts xxvi. 5
(Rev. Ver.).
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5. Difficult; distressful; straited.
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To make your strait circumstances yet straiter.
--Secker.
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6. Parsimonious; niggargly; mean. [Obs.]
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I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait,
And so ingrateful, you deny me that. --Shak.
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Strait \Strait\, v. t.
To put to difficulties. [Obs.] --Shak.
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