narrow

[ nar-oh ]

See synonyms for: narrow narrowed narrower narrowest on Thesaurus.com

adjective,nar·row·er, nar·row·est.

of little breadth or width; not broad or wide; not as wide as usual or expected: a narrow path.
limited in extent or space; affording little room: narrow quarters.

limited in range or scope: a narrow sampling of public opinion.
lacking breadth of view or sympathy, as persons, the mind, or ideas: a narrow man, knowing only his professional specialty;a narrow mind.
with little margin to spare; barely adequate or successful; close: a narrow escape.
careful, thorough, or minute, as a scrutiny, search, or inquiry.
limited in amount; small; meager: narrow resources.
characterized by limited means; straitened; impoverished: Since work was scarce, he soon found himself in narrow circumstances.
New England. stingy or parsimonious.
Phonetics.
- (of a vowel) articulated with the tongue laterally constricted, as the ee of beet, the oo of boot, etc.; tense.: Compare lax¹ (def. 7).
- (of a phonetic transcription) utilizing a unique symbol for each phoneme and whatever supplementary diacritics are needed to indicate its subphonemic varieties.: Compare broad (def. 14).
(of livestock feeds) proportionately rich in protein.

verb (used without object)

to decrease in width or breadth: This is where the road narrows.

verb (used with object)

to make narrower.
to limit or restrict (often followed by down): to narrow an area of search;to narrow down a contest to three competitors.

to make narrow-minded: Living in that village has narrowed him.

noun

a narrow part, place, or thing.
a narrow part of a valley, passage, or road.

narrows, (used with a singular or plural verb) a narrow part of a strait, river, ocean current, etc.
the Narrows, a narrow strait from upper to lower New York Bay, between Staten Island and Long Island. 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long; 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide.

Origin of narrow

First recorded before 900; Middle English narw(e), nareu(e), narow(e), Old English nearu (inflectional stem nearw- ), cognate with Old Saxon naru “narrow,” Dutch naar “dismal, unpleasant,” Old Saxon naro, naru “narrow, depressing”; possibly akin to German Narbe “scar,” literally, “narrow mark”

Other words for narrow

4	biased, limited, shallow, small-minded

See synonyms for narrow on Thesaurus.com

Other words from narrow

nar·row·ly, adverb
nar·row·ness, noun
o·ver·nar·row, adjective
o·ver·nar·row·ly, adverb
o·ver·nar·row·ness, noun
un·nar·row, adjective
un·nar·row·ly, adverb
un·nar·rowed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use narrow in a sentence

The wind-whipped blaze’s precise extent and the number of casualties, as people ran through narrow streets to escape, can only be guessed.
What was Nero really doing while Rome burned? | Diana Preston | November 20, 2020 | Washington Post
In a mosaic, only certain combinations of these two parameters work, forming a narrow swath of shapes that could possibly result from something falling apart.
Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of Geology | Joshua Sokol | November 19, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
On the upper floors, narrow corridors make it easy to bump into people on their way out of a side gallery.
You have until Nov. 22 to visit these six Smithsonian museums. Here’s what to expect. | Kelsey Ables | November 19, 2020 | Washington Post
To narrow it down, Tuchman and her co-authors focused on the top 500 brands as measured by dollar sales.
Does Advertising Actually Work? (Part 1: TV) (Ep. 440) | Stephen J. Dubner | November 19, 2020 | Freakonomics
Whatever kind you get, an extender will narrow the space between your skin and the top of your mask.
The best ways to stop a mask from fogging up your glasses, ranked | Sandra Gutierrez G. | November 18, 2020 | Popular-Science

Then a slowing down, the sound narrowing from a dark mass to a single line.
Greil Marcus Talks About Trying to Unlock Rock and Roll in 10 Songs | Allen Barra | November 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
This strain of enterovirus seems unusually provocative in irritating lower airways, thereby causing airway narrowing.
Midwest's 'Mystery Virus' Is Scary but Not Deadly | Kent Sepkowitz | September 8, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The village sits along a narrowing vein of the Rio Negro, a tributary of the mighty Amazon.
Bye Bye Latté, Hello Guayusa: Why The Amazon Holds the Secret to a Cleaner, Healthier Caffeine | Brandon Presser | August 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 295 people aboard crashed and suspicion is narrowing on pro-Russian separatists.
Latest News on Malaysian Airliner Reportedly Shot Down Over Ukraine | The Daily Beast | July 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Perhaps most importantly, normalizing marriage is a narrowing, rather than an expanding, of sexual possibility.
Were Christians Right About Gay Marriage All Along? | Jay Michaelson | May 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He missed Flora's gay letter of gossip, and looked with narrowing lids at the pile of newspapers.
Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
Then graduate the shades back again to white, narrowing the first row of white with the larger mesh.
The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness | Florence Hartley
Unlike his pony prototypes, his was a lengthy, arched neck, held high from narrowing withers and a short back.
David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
And as the narrowing process progressed, she said, the exhausting or vampire quality grew and grew.
The Daughters of Danaus | Mona Caird
Opportunities were narrowing down rapidly—the canoe was perilously close, and so many of his bullets went astray.
Menotah | Ernest G. Henham

British Dictionary definitions for narrow

narrow

/ (ˈnærəʊ) /

adjective

small in breadth, esp in comparison to length
limited in range or extent

limited in outlook; lacking breadth of vision
limited in means or resources; meagre: narrow resources
barely adequate or successful (esp in the phrase a narrow escape)
painstakingly thorough; minute: a narrow scrutiny
finance denoting an assessment of liquidity as including notes and coin in circulation with the public, banks' till money, and banks' balances: narrow money Compare broad (def. 14)
dialect overcareful with money; parsimonious
phonetics
- another word for tense 1 (def. 4)
- relating to or denoting a transcription used to represent phonetic rather than phonemic distinctions
- another word for close 1 (def. 21)
(of agricultural feeds) especially rich in protein
narrow squeak informal an escape only just managed

verb

to make or become narrow; limit; restrict

noun

a narrow place, esp a pass or strait

Origin of narrow

Old English nearu; related to Old Saxon naru

See also narrows

Derived forms of narrow

narrowly, adverb
narrowness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with narrow

narrow

In addition to the idiom beginning with narrow

narrow escape

, see

straight and narrow

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