straighten
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
-
to make or become straight
-
(tr) to make neat or tidy
straighten your desk
Other Word Forms
- overstraighten verb
- prestraighten verb (used with object)
- restraighten verb
- straightener noun
- unstraightened adjective
- well-straightened adjective
Etymology
Origin of straighten
Explanation
When you straighten something, you either unbend it or tidy it up. So you might straighten your legs, get off the couch, and straighten the room. To make something straight is to straighten it. When you uncross your legs and stretch them out in front of you, you straighten them. And if you adjust a picture on the wall so it's perfectly level, you straighten it. In the the 14th century, the equivalent verb was straight — so in those days, your mom would have said, "Straight your bedroom before you go out with your friends!"
Vocabulary lists containing straighten
List 10
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"The Giving Tree"
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Spelling Practice 3, Unit 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After Wednesday’s column, readers emailed to straighten me out.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
It took a meeting with the inflation-slaying giant of a former Fed chair, Paul Volcker, to straighten him out.
From Barron's • Oct. 8, 2025
Her forfeit was to straighten her mop of curly hair for the team's evening meal.
From BBC • Sep. 27, 2025
Should these innings be used to straighten out previously-successful relievers such as Treinen and Scott?
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 22, 2025
He said there were doctors in Oklahoma City that could take a crippled leg and straighten it out as straight as a ramrod.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
