straiten
Americanverb (used with object)
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to put into difficulties, especially financial ones.
His obligations had straitened him.
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to restrict in range, extent, amount, pecuniary means, etc.
Poverty straitens one's way of living.
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Archaic.
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to make narrow.
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to confine within narrow limits.
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verb
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(tr; usually passive) to embarrass or distress, esp financially
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(tr) to limit, confine, or restrict
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archaic to make or become narrow
Etymology
Origin of straiten
Explanation
To straiten is to restrict financially, the way having your rent increase can straiten your circumstances if your salary stays the same. The verb straiten is an old-fashioned one, but it's one way to describe a situation that's been diminished or constrained, usually because of money problems. This meaning derives from an earlier definition, "to restrict or make narrow," from strait, "narrow." If you find your circumstances narrowed by a lack of finances, you'll know what this word is all about.
Vocabulary lists containing straiten
Pygmalion
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Long Walk to Freedom
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"A Day's Work," Excerpt from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
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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.
O love immense and independent, which nothing can limit or straiten!
From Spiritual Torrents by Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
But yet in an hour, I did have the cloak about her, again; and so did straiten matters, as you shall conceive.
From The Night Land by Hodgson, William Hope
Harden, at the same time, with a body of mounted militia, had it in charge to straiten the enemy upon the Edisto.
From The Life of Francis Marion by Simms, William Gilmore
No one can wish to straiten his chance of acquittal, or to inquire too curiously whether there be not a pretext for closing the door that now stands ajar.
From William Blake A Critical Essay by Swinburne, Algernon Charles
I absolutely must reform, for I do not propose that my father shall straiten himself for me; and that is what will happen if I continue to lead the life I have been leading.
From San-Cravate; or, The Messengers; Little Streams by Kock, Charles Paul de
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.
