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.

Adjective

(er)

Having a small width; not wide; slim; slender; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.

* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)

, chapter=1 citation , passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=14 citation , passage=Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. That’s because the lenses that are excellent at magnifying tiny subjects produce a narrow depth of field. A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that.}}

Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.

* Bishop Wilkins

The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.

(figuratively) Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.

Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted.

a narrow''' mind; '''narrow views

* Macaulay

a narrow understanding

Having a small margin or degree.

The Republicans won by a narrow majority.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 18, author=Ben Dirs

, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia, work=BBC Sport citation , passage=As in their narrow defeat of Argentina last week, England were indisciplined at the breakdown, and if Georgian fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili had remembered his kicking boots, Johnson's side might have been behind at half-time.}}

(dated) Limited as to means; straitened; pinching.

narrow circumstances

Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.

* Smalridge

a very narrow and stinted charity

Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.

* Milton

But first with narrow search I must walk round / This garden, and no corner leave unspied.

(phonetics) Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.