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Strait vs Minch - What's the difference?

strait | minch |

In obsolete terms the difference between strait and minch

is that strait is strictly; rigorously while minch is a nun.

As an adjective strait

is narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.

As a verb strait

is to put to difficulties.

As an adverb strait

is strictly; rigorously.

As a proper noun Minch is

a strait of Scotland, between the north-west Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides.

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

    Anagrams

    *

    minch

    English

    (The Minch)

    Proper noun

  • A strait of Scotland, between the north-west Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides.

    • Quotations

    * 1750 , Francis Grant, A Letter to a Member of Parliament Concerning the Free British Fisheries , page 21: *: The best Place for a Staple [of herrings], would be at Stornway'', in one of the ''Lewis'' Islands, which is a good Harbour, and there are many good Hands; also it lies open to the ''Minch'' , a Sea above sixty Miles over to the main Land of ''Scotland'', to the Southward of which lies the Isle of ''Sky , … * 1799 , Revd. James Headrick, On the Practicability, and Advantages, of Opening a Navigation Between the Murray Firth at Inverness, and Loch Eil, at Fort William'', section II ''Fisheries'', from ''Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland, Volume 1 , page 388: *: That extensive bason of sea, called the Great, and the Little Minch ; bounded on the west, by that chain of islands, called the Long Island , because they seem but one, when viewed at a distance; on the east, by the indented shores of Scotland: from the butt of the Lewis, to the Mull of Kintire, never fails to be filled, every year, with an immense body of herrings. * 1960 , Ewan MacColl, Singing the Fishing ( transcript): *: Come all you gallant fishermen,
    That plough the stormy sea
    The whole year round,
    On the fishing grounds
    Of the Northern Minch and the Norway Deeps,
    On the banks and knolls of the North Sea holes,
    Where the herring shoals are found.

    Synonyms

    * North Minch

    Related terms

    * Little Minch