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Strait vs River - What's the difference?

strait | river |

As nouns the difference between strait and river

is that strait is a narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water while river is a large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, ending at an ocean or in an inland sea.

As verbs the difference between strait and river

is that strait is to put to difficulties while river is to improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.

As an adjective strait

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

As an adverb strait

is strictly; rigorously.

As a proper noun River is

a given name derived from English.

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

    *

    river

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), from .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, ending at an ocean or in an inland sea.
  • * 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
    • By the side of the river' he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the ' river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers , washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.}}
  • Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.
  • (poker) The last card dealt in a hand.
    • Derived terms
    * cry someone a river * riverbank * riverbed * river basin * river bed * river birch * river blindness * riverboat/river boat * river bottom * river boulder * river dolphin * river duck * riverfront * river hog * river horse * riverine * river lamprey * river limper * river mouth * river otter * river pear * river prawn * river runner * river shad * riverside * riverward * riverway * sell down the river * submarine river * up the river * (river)
    See also
    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (poker) To improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.
    • Johnny rivered me by drawing that ace of spades.

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who rives or splits.

    • References

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    Statistics

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