narrow
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.
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.
to decrease in width or breadth: This is where the road narrows.
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.
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
1Other words for narrow
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.
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 MagazineOn 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 PostTo 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 | FreakonomicsWhatever 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 BEASTThis 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 BEASTThe 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 BEASTA 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 BEASTPerhaps 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 BEASTHe missed Flora's gay letter of gossip, and looked with narrowing lids at the pile of newspapers.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonThen 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 HartleyUnlike his pony prototypes, his was a lengthy, arched neck, held high from narrowing withers and a short back.
David Lannarck, Midget | George S. HarneyAnd as the narrowing process progressed, she said, the exhausting or vampire quality grew and grew.
The Daughters of Danaus | Mona CairdOpportunities 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
/ (ˈnærəʊ) /
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
to make or become narrow; limit; restrict
a narrow place, esp a pass or strait
Origin of narrow
1- 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
In addition to the idiom beginning with narrow
- narrow escape
, see
- straight and narrow
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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