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Strait vs Passage - What's the difference?

strait | passage |

Passage is a synonym of strait.



As nouns the difference between strait and passage

is that strait is a narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water while passage is a paragraph or section of text or music with particular meaning.

As verbs the difference between strait and passage

is that strait is to put to difficulties while passage is to pass a pathogen through a host or medium.

As an adjective strait

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

As an adverb strait

is strictly; rigorously.

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

    *

    passage

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A paragraph or section of text or music with particular meaning.
    • passage of scripture
    She struggled to play the difficult passages .
  • Part of a path or journey.
    • He made his passage through the trees carefully, mindful of the stickers.
  • The official approval of a bill or act by a parliament.
    • The company was one of the prime movers in lobbying for the passage of the act.
  • (art) The use of tight brushwork to link objects in separate spatial plains. Commonly seen in Cubist works.
  • A passageway or corridor.
  • (caving) An underground cavity, formed by water or falling rocks, which is much longer than it is wide.
  • (euphemistic) The vagina.
  • * 1986 , Bertrice Small, A Love for All Time , New American Library, ISBN 9780451821416, page 463:
    • With a look of triumph that he was unable to keep from his dark eyes he slid into her passage with one smooth thrust,
  • * 1987 , Usha Sarup, Expert Lovemaking , Jaico Publishing House, ISBN 978-81-7224-162-9, page 53:
    • This way, the tip of your penis will travel up and down her passage .
  • * 2009 , Cat Lindler, Kiss of a Traitor , Medallion Press, ISBN 9781933836515, page 249:
    • At the same moment, Aidan plunged two fingers deep into her passage and broke through her fragile barrier.
  • The act of passing
  • * 1886 , Pacific medical journal Volume 29
    • He claimed that he felt the passage of the knife through the ilio-cæcal valve, from the very considerable pain which it caused.
    Derived terms
    * rite of passage * passagemaker * passage maker

    Verb

    (passag)
  • (medicine) To pass a pathogen through a host or medium
    • He passaged the virus through a series of goats.
    After 24 hours, the culture was passaged to an agar plate.
  • (rare) To make a , especially by sea; to cross
    • They passaged to America in 1902.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dressage) A movement in classical dressage, in which the horse performs a very collected, energetic, and elevated trot that has a longer period of suspension between each foot fall than a working trot.

    • Verb

    (passag)
  • (dressage) To execute a passage movement
  • * {{quote-book, 1915, Cunninghame Graham, Hope citation
    • , passage=After a spring or two, the horse passaged and reared, and lighting on a flat slab of rock which cropped up in the middle of the road, slipped sideways and fell with a loud crash

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