Strait vs Distress - What's the difference?
strait | distress | Related terms |
(archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.
* Emerson
* 1866 , , Aholibah , lines 53-55
* 1900 , , To One in Bedlam , lines 3-5
(archaic) Righteous, strict.
* 1597 , , IV. iii. 79:
* Bible, Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.)
(obsolete) Tight; close; tight-fitting.
* 1613 , , III. vi. 86:
(obsolete) Close; intimate; near; familiar.
* Sir Philip Sidney
(obsolete) Difficult; distressful; straited.
* Secker
(obsolete) Parsimonious; niggardly; mean.
* 1596 , , V. vii. 42:
(geography) A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
* De Foe
A narrow pass or passage.
* Spenser
* 1602 , , III. iii. 154:
A neck of land; an isthmus.
* Tennyson
A difficult position (often used in plural).
* South
* Broome
(obsolete) Strictly; rigorously.
* 1593 , , III. ii. 20:
(Cause of) discomfort.
* {{quote-book
, year=1833
, author=John Trusler
, title=The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings
, chapter=8
Serious danger.
* {{quote-book
, year=1719
, author=Daniel Defoe
, title=Robinson Crusoe
, chapter=13
* {{quote-book
, year=1759
, author=Voltaire
, title=Candide
, chapter=42
(legal) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
(legal) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.
* Spenser
* Blackstone
To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
* {{quote-book
, year=1827
, author=Stendhal
, title=Armance
, chapter=31
(legal) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
*
To treat an object, such as an antique, to give it an appearance of age.
Strait is a related term of distress.
As nouns the difference between strait and distress
is that strait is (geography) a narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water while distress is (cause of) discomfort.As verbs the difference between strait and distress
is that strait is (obsolete) to put to difficulties while distress is to cause strain or anxiety to someone.As an adjective strait
is (archaic) narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.As an adverb strait
is (obsolete) strictly; rigorously.strait
English
Adjective
(er)- too strait and low our cottage doors
- Sweet oil was poured out on thy head
- And ran down like cool rain between
- The strait close locks it melted in.
- Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line
- His strait , caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,
- Pedant and pitiful.
- to follow the strait and narrow
- some certain edicts and some strait decrees
- the straitest sect of our religion
- Is not this piece too strait ? / No, no, 'tis well.
- a strait degree of favour
- to make your strait' circumstances yet ' straiter
- 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-lacedNoun
(en noun) (wikipedia strait)- The Strait of Gibraltar
- We steered directly through a large outlet which they call a strait , though it be fifteen miles broad.
- He brought him through a darksome narrow strait / To a broad gate all built of beaten gold.
- For honour travels in a strait so narrow / Where one but goes abreast.
- a dark strait of barren land
- to be in dire straits
- Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever.
- 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 straitsAdverb
(en adverb)- Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloucester
Anagrams
*distress
English
Noun
(-)citation, passage=To heighten his distress , he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connexions (with that unhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she never shall be able to surmount.}}
citation, passage=I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress , and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help.}}
citation, passage=At length they perceived a little cottage; two persons in the decline of life dwelt in this desert, who were always ready to give every assistance in their power to their fellow-creatures in distress .}}
- If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.
- The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.
Verb
(es)citation, passage=She respects me, no doubt, but has no longer any passionate feeling for me, and my death will distress her without plunging her in despair.}}
- She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.