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straiten

[streyt-n]
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verb (used with object)
  1. to put into difficulties, especially financial ones: His obligations had straitened him.
  2. to restrict in range, extent, amount, pecuniary means, etc: Poverty straitens one's way of living.
  3. Archaic.
    1. to make narrow.
    2. to confine within narrow limits.
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Origin of straiten

First recorded in 1515–25; strait + -en1
Related formsun·strait·ened, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for straiten

Historical Examples

  • O love immense and independent, which nothing can limit or straiten!

    Spiritual Torrents

    Jeanne Marie Bouvires de la Mot Guyon

  • Hatsell, Baron—Mr. Cowper, I would not have you straiten yourself, but only ask those questions that are pertinent.

  • I want you to consider what per cent you can pay, and not straiten yourselves too much.

    Hope Mills

    Amanda M. Douglas

  • He told me he could not say but it might straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might want it more than he.

  • Col. Harden, at the same time, with a body of mounted militia, had it in charge to straiten the enemy upon the Edisto.

    The Life of Francis Marion

    William Gilmore Simms

British Dictionary definitions for straiten

straiten

verb
  1. (tr; usually passive) to embarrass or distress, esp financially
  2. (tr) to limit, confine, or restrict
  3. archaic to make or become narrow
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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