Need vs Strait - What's the difference?

Need is a synonym of strait.

As nouns the difference between need and strait

is that need is a requirement for something while strait is (geography) a narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

As verbs the difference between need and strait

is that need is to be necessary (to someone) while strait is (obsolete) to put to difficulties.

As an adjective strait is

(archaic) narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.

As an adverb strait is

(obsolete) strictly; rigorously.

need

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) need, nede, partly from (etyl) . More at (l). Old norse nauð(r) ("powerty,distress, lack of")

Noun

(en noun)

A requirement for something.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

I have no need to beg.

* (Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)

Be governed by your needs , not by your fancy.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.

Something required.

Lack of means of subsistence; poverty; indigence; destitution.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Famine is in thy cheeks; / Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes.

Usage notes

* Adjectives often used with "need": urgent, dire, desperate, strong, unmet, bad, basic, critical, essential, big, terrible, modest, elementary, daily, everyday, special, educational, environmental, human, personal, financial, emotional, medical, nutritional, spiritual, public, developmental, organizational, legal, fundamental, audio-visual, psychological, corporate, societal, psychosocial, functional, additional, caloric, private, monetary, physiological, mental.

Derived terms

(Derived terms) * if need be * in need, in need of; a friend in need is a friend indeed * need-based * needful, needfully, needfulness * needless, needlessly, needlessness * needy, needily, neediness

Etymology 2

From (etyl) neden, from (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)

To be necessary (to someone).

* , II.ix:

More ample spirit, then hitherto was wount, / Here needes me.

(label) To have an absolute requirement for.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport

, title= Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , passage=Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.}}

(label) To want strongly; to feel that one must have something.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)

, title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.}}

(label) To be obliged or required (to do something).

(label) To be required; to be necessary.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

When we have done it, we have done all that is in our power, and all that needs .

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)

, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.}}

Usage notes

* The verb is construed in a few different ways: ** With a direct object, as in “I need your help.” ** With a to -infinitive, as in “I need to go.” Here, the subject of serves implicitly as the subject of the infinitive. ** With a clause of the form “for [object] to [verb phrase]”, or simply “[object] to [verb phrase]” as in “I need for this to happen” or “I need this to happen.” In both variants, the object serves as the subject of the infinitive. ** As a modal verb, with a bare infinitive; in negative polarity contexts, such as questions (“Need I say more?”), with negative expressions such as not (“It need not happen today”; “No one need ever know”), and with similar constructions (“There need only be a few”; “it need be signed only by the president”; “I need hardly explain the error”). . ** With a gerund-participle, as in “The car needs washing”, or (in certain dialects) with a past participle, as in “The car needs washed”^{[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003106.html]} (both meaning roughly “The car needs to be washed”). ** With a direct object and a predicative complement, as in “We need everyone here on time” (meaning roughly “We need everyone to be here on time”) or “I need it gone” (meaning roughly “I need it to be gone”). ** In certain dialects, and colloquially in certain others, with an unmarked reflexive pronoun, as in “I need me a car.” * A sentence such as “I need you to sit down” or “you need to sit down” is more polite than the bare command “sit down”, but less polite than “please sit down”. It is considered somewhat condescending and infantilizing, hence dubbed by some “the kindergarten imperative”, but is quite common in American usage.“ You Need To Read This: How need to vanquished have to, must, and should.” by Ben Yagoda, Slate, July 17, 2006

Synonyms

* (desire) desire, wish for, would like, want, will (archaic) * (lack) be without, lack * (require) be in need of, require

Derived terms

* needed, unneeded * need-to-know basis

References

Statistics

External links

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Anagrams

* * 1000 English basic words ----

strait

English

Adjective

(er)

(archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.

* Emerson

too strait and low our cottage doors

* 1866 , , Aholibah , lines 53-55

Sweet oil was poured out on thy head

And ran down like cool rain between

The strait close locks it melted in.

* 1900 , , To One in Bedlam , lines 3-5

Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line

His strait , caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,

Pedant and pitiful.

(archaic) Righteous, strict.

to follow the strait and narrow

* 1597 , , IV. iii. 79:

some certain edicts and some strait decrees

* Bible, Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.)

the straitest sect of our religion

(obsolete) Tight; close; tight-fitting.

* 1613 , , III. vi. 86:

Is not this piece too strait ? / No, no, 'tis well.

(obsolete) Close; intimate; near; familiar.

* Sir Philip Sidney

a strait degree of favour

(obsolete) Difficult; distressful; straited.

* Secker

to make your strait' circumstances yet ' straiter

(obsolete) Parsimonious; niggardly; mean.

* 1596 , , V. vii. 42:

I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait , / And so ingrateful, you deny me that.

Usage notes

The adjective is often confused with straight.

Derived terms

* straitjacket * strait-laced

Noun

(en noun) (wikipedia strait)

(geography) A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

The Strait of Gibraltar

* De Foe

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

A narrow pass or passage.

* Spenser

He brought him through a darksome narrow strait / To a broad gate all built of beaten gold.

* 1602 , , III. iii. 154:

For honour travels in a strait so narrow / Where one but goes abreast.

A neck of land; an isthmus.

* Tennyson

a dark strait of barren land

A difficult position (often used in plural).

to be in dire straits

* South

Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever.

* Broome

Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts.

Derived terms

* dire straits

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To put to difficulties.

(Shakespeare)

Adverb

(en adverb)

(obsolete) Strictly; rigorously.

* 1593 , , III. ii. 20:

Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloucester