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.
To the Editers of The Cawcashin: Surs:—Didn't I tell you that, as soon as I got here, I would straiten things out?
From Letters of Major Jack Downing, of the Downingville Militia by Seba Smith
P: Lodge them where ye dwell, according to your wealth, and harass them not so as to straiten life for them.
From Three Translations of The Koran (Al-Qur'an) side by side by Abdullah Yusuf Ali
Many of those things that trouble and straiten thee, it is in thy XXXI.
From Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
I want you to consider what per cent you can pay, and not straiten yourselves too much.
From Hope Mills or, Between Friend and Sweetheart by Amanda Minnie Douglas
But really when I saw so much goodness, generosity, tenderness, and real honesty, I had not the heart to accept it, for fear he should straiten himself upon my account.
From The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801) by Daniel Defoe
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
