Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive & intransitive verb To make or become straight or straighter.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make straight, in any sense; specifically, to reduce from a crooked to a straight form.
- To become straight; assume a straight form.
- See
straiten .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To make straight; to reduce from a crooked to a straight form.
- transitive verb To make right or correct; to reduce to order.
- transitive verb to cease laughing or smiling, etc., and compose one's features.
- transitive verb Obs. or R. A variant of
straiten .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To cause to become
straight . - verb intransitive To become straight.
- verb transitive To put in
order ; tosort ; totidy up . - verb transitive To
clarify a situation or concept to (an audience). - verb transitive, slang To
bribe orcorrupt . - verb intransitive To
stand up , especially from a sitting position.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb make straight
- verb make straight or straighter
- verb put (things or places) in order
- verb straighten up or out; make straight
- verb straighten by unrolling
- verb get up from a sitting or slouching position
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Went down stairs for dinner around 9pm where we were waited upon by a Chateau waiter who was fully obsessive compulsive and actually came by to "straighten" my silver wear at one point and bullied us into all ordering the same beverage.
The Daily Truffle: Nicole Richie and LA's Young Hot Finest Pack the Penthouse, AKA Room 64 The Daily Truffle 2010
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Went down stairs for dinner around 9pm where we were waited upon by a Chateau waiter who was fully obsessive compulsive and actually came by to "straighten" my silver wear at one point and bullied us into all ordering the same beverage.
The Daily Truffle: Nicole Richie and LA's Young Hot Finest Pack the Penthouse, AKA Room 64 The Daily Truffle 2010
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Does it mean pick up as in "straighten" or pick up as in "yank up?"
Capitals must pick up their socks Dan Steinberg 2010
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Similarly, despite the efforts of Scott and Paxton to "straighten" The Brick Foxhole, the homosocial and potentially homoerotic bonds between men represented by Brooks could not be completely excised from Crossfire.
Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood 2007
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It is hard to imagine that Scott and Paxton intended the scene in this way, given their other overt attempts to "straighten" The Brick Foxhole.
Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood 2007
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` ` Then they kind of straighten their faces out. '' ...
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Some genius has started a Pisa pushers group on Flicker, featuring third party pics of tourists attempting to 'straighten' the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
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Phil Bowermaster endeavors to "straighten" the public out on two issues on which it is "desperately misinformed."
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Senior analyst Jeff Greenfield is here to kind of straighten it all out for us.
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Elizabeth Cohen, you are able to kind of straighten this out for us a little bit.
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