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straitsmore about straits

straits

 

  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Strait  \Strait\,  n.;  pl  {Straits}.  [OE.  straight,  streit,  OF 
  estreit,  estroit  See  {Strait},  a.] 
  1.  A  narrow  pass  or  passage. 
 
  He  brought  him  through  a  darksome  narrow  strait  To  a 
  broad  gate  all  built  of  beaten  gold.  --Spenser. 
 
  Honor  travels  in  a  strait  so  narrow  Where  one  but 
  goes  abreast.  --Shak. 
 
  2.  Specifically:  (Geog.)  A  (comparatively)  narrow  passageway 
  connecting  two  large  bodies  of  water;  --  often  in  the 
  plural;  as  the  strait,  or  straits,  of  Gibraltar;  the 
  straits  of  Magellan;  the  strait,  or  straits,  of  Mackinaw. 
 
  We  steered  directly  through  a  large  outlet  which 
  they  call  a  strait,  though  it  be  fifteen  miles 
  broad.  --De  Foe. 
 
  3.  A  neck  of  land;  an  isthmus.  [R.] 
 
  A  dark  strait  of  barren  land.  --Tennyson. 
 
  4.  Fig.:  A  condition  of  narrowness  or  restriction;  doubt; 
  distress;  difficulty;  poverty;  perplexity;  --  sometimes  in 
  the  plural;  as  reduced  to  great  straits. 
 
  For  I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two  --Phil.  i.  23. 
 
  Let  no  man,  who  owns  a  Providence,  grow  desperate 
  under  any  calamity  or  strait  whatsoever.  --South. 
 
  Ulysses  made  use  of  the  pretense  of  natural 
  infirmity  to  conceal  the  straits  he  was  in  at  that 
  time  in  his  thoughts.  --Broome. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  straits 
  n  1:  a  bad  or  difficult  situation  or  state  of  affairs  [syn:  {pass}, 
  {strait}] 
  2:  a  difficult  juncture;  "a  pretty  pass";  "matters  came  to  a 
  head  yesterday"  [syn:  {pass},  {head}]




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