straight and narrow, the

Idioms  

1. The honest and upright way of living, as in He led a wild life when he was young, but he's been on the straight and narrow for some years. This expression is widely though to come from confusion of straight, “not crooked,” with strait, “narrow,” owing to a misinterpretation of a passage from the New Testament: “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life” (Matthew 7:14). The current phrase dates only from the first half of the 1800s.

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Example Sentences

Ironically, by not making sure Co-op Bank kept to the straight and narrow, the FSA has succeeded in tainting all mutuals, even the better-run ones.

From BBC • Nov. 21, 2013

The legs must be straight and narrow, the calves full, the feet small and narrow, with high instep.

From Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4 Sexual Selection In Man by Ellis, Havelock