Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or quality of being strait.
- noun Strictness; rigor.
- noun Distress; difficulty; pressure from narrowness of circumstances or necessity of any kind, particularly from poverty; want; scarcity.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality or condition of being strait; especially, a pinched condition or situation caused by poverty.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable The state or quality of being
strait . - noun countable The result or product of being
strait .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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So they patiently suffer the straitness and distress wherein they are, with what they know of the future punishment whereto they are fast wending, and are content with this worthless and easily won sweetness; and the
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To the straitness of the grave and oh! base is their abode:
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To straitness of the grave-yard and humble bed of dust
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So saying, she turned her lance-head towards foe in plain and gave her horse the rein, whereupon he darted off under her, like the stormy gale or like waters that from straitness of pipes outrail.
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He agreed to this for the straitness of his case, and carried her to the bazar, where the broker offered her for sale to the Governor of Bassorah, by name
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Quoth Nur al-Huda after a few moments of reflection “How durst thou bespeak me thus?” and rose and beat her till she fainted away; 160 whereupon they sprinkled water on her face till she revived; and in truth her charms were wasted for excess of beating and the straitness of her bonds and the sore insults she had suffered.
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Thereupon, the man who had waxed wealthy being sore concerned, told him the whole story, and added, “I have brought thee a present, such as souls desire, and the price of thy dish of gold which I took; for it was the cause of my affluence after poverty, and of the replenishment of my dwelling-place, after desolation, and of the dispersion of my trouble and straitness.”
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Now when the Caliph heard these words he smiled and his straitness of breast was done away with and he said,
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Whoso doeth the work appointed unto him, the steward bringeth him forth of that straitness; but whoso doeth it not within the stablished term is punished.
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Under the influence of this injury (and perhaps of some little straitness and irregularity in the matter of wages), he had grown neglectful of his person and morose in mind; and now beholding in Clennam one of the degraded body of his oppressors, received him with ignominy.
Little Dorrit 2007
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