King James Bible Dictionary

STRAIT, adjective [See Straight.]

1. Narrow; close; not broad.

STRAIT is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13.

2. Close; intimate; as a strait degree of favor.

3. Strict; rigorous.

He now, forsooth, takes on him to reform some certain edicts, and some strait decrees.

4. Difficult; distressful.

5. Straight; not crooked.

STRAIT, noun [See Straight.]

1. A narrow pass or passage, either in a mountain or in the ocean, between continents or other portions of land; as the straits of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the straits of Dover. [In this sense, the plural is more generally used than the singular, and often without any apparent reason or propriety.]

2. Distress; difficulty; distressing necessity; formerly written streight. [Used either in the singular or plural.]

Let no man who owns a providence, become desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever.

Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts.

STRAIT, verb transitive To put to difficulties. [Not in use.]

Matthew 7:13-14
Luke 13:24

STRAITEN, verb transitive

1. To make narrow.

In narrow circuit, straitend by a foe.

2. To contract; to confine; as, to straiten the British commerce.

3. To make tense or tight; as, to straiten a cord.

4. To distress; to perplex; to press with poverty or other necessity; as, a man straitened in his circumstances.

5. To press by want of sufficient room.

Waters when straitened, as at the falls of bridges, give a roaring noise.

STRAIT-HANDED, adjective [strait and hand.] Parsimonious; sparing; niggardly. [Not much used.]

STRAIT-HANDEDNESS, noun Niggardliness; parsimony.

STRAIT-WAISTCOAT, STRAIT-JACKET noun An apparatus to confine the limbs of a distracted person.

STRAIT-LACED, adjective [strait and lace.]

1. Griped with stays.

We have few well-shaped that are strait-laced

2. Stiff; constrained. Hence,

3. Rigid in opinion; strict.

STRAITLY, adverb

1. Narrowly; closely.

2. Strictly; rigorously. [For this, strictly is now used.]

3. Closely; intimately.

STRAITNESS, noun

1. Narrowness; as the straitness of a place; straitness of mind; straitness of circumstances.

2. Strictness; rigor; as the straitness of a mans proceedings.

3. Distress; difficulty; pressure from necessity of any kind, particularly from poverty.

4. Want; scarcity; or rather narrowness; as the straitness of the conveniences of life.

STRAIT-WAISTCOAT, STRAIT-JACKET, noun An apparatus to confine the limbs of a distracted person.