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Straiter vs Straiten - What's the difference?

straiter | straiten |

As an adjective straiter

is (strait).

As a verb straiten is

.

straiter

English

Adjective

(head)
  • (strait)

  • 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

    *

    straiten

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make strait; to narrow or confine to a smaller space.
  • The channel straitened the river through the town, made it flow faster, and caused more flooding upstream.
  • (senseid) To restrict or diminish, especially financially.
  • * 1662 , , Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 67:
  • "And the reason why Birds'' are ''Oviparous'' and ''lay Eggs , but do not bring forth their yong alive, is, because there might be more plenty of them also, and that neither the Birds of prey, the Serpent nor the Fowler, should streighten their generations too much."
    Rising costs put those on fixed incomes in straitened circumstances.

    Usage notes

    To "straighten the river channel" means to remove the bends and curves, but not necessarily to narrow it. To "straiten the river channel" means to make it narrow, but not necessarily to make it straight. The same construction project could have both effects. The difference may be seen in the nautical term "strait", for example Bass Strait (off the south coast of Victoria, Australia), which is a narrow stretch of sea. It is also used in the expression "to be in dire straits", as in perilously tight circumstances.

    Anagrams

    * * *

    Alternative forms

    * streighten