STRAITS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Straits

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/streɪts/ Listen

noun

Strait n. (pl. straits)

1.

A narrow pass or passage. "He brought him through a darksome narrow strait To a broad gate all built of beaten gold." "Honor travels in a strait so narrow Where one but goes abreast."

2.

Specifically: (Geog.) A (comparatively) narrow passageway connecting two large bodies of water; often in the plural; as, the strait, or straits, of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the strait, or straits, of Mackinaw. "We steered directly through a large outlet which they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles broad."

3.

A neck of land; an isthmus. (R.) "A dark strait of barren land."

4.

Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt; distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; sometimes in the plural; as, reduced to great straits. "For I am in a strait betwixt two." "Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever." "Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts."

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Etymology of 'Straits'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Straits" Quotes from Famous Books

... the seashore at Idzu his men sought for boats in which to cross the straits to Kadzusa, but it was difficult to find boats enough to allow all the soldiers to embark. Then the Prince stood on the beach, and in the pride of his strength he scoffed ...

— Japanese Fairy Tales • Yei Theodora Ozaki

... maun gang wi' ye, man," answered the laird, rising. "Grizzie's a heap taen up wi' yer gran'mither. She's been weirin' awa' this fortnicht back. She's no in pain, the Lord be praised! an' she'll never ken the straits her hoose is com till! Cosmo, I hae been a terrible cooard—dreidin' day an' nicht yer hame-comin', no submittin' 'at ye sud see sic a broken man to the father o' ye! But noo it's ower, an' here ye are, an' my hert's lichter nor it's been this mony ...

— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... but the appearance only thereof; because the credit of virtue is a help, but the use of it is cumber:" or that other of his principles, "That he presuppose that men are not fitly to be wrought otherwise but by fear; and therefore that he seek to have every man obnoxious, low, and in straits," which the Italians call seminar spine, to sow thorns: or that other principle, contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, Cadant amici, dummodo inimici intercidant, as the triumvirs, which sold every one to other the lives of their friends for the deaths of ...

— The Advancement of Learning • Francis Bacon

... however, Alfonso turned out his brothers and also extended his borders even to the Tagus by taking Toledo in 1085. But his successes roused the Moslem powers to fresh fanaticism. A new and stricter dynasty, the Almoravides,[2] arose in Africa and crossing the straits inflicted a crushing defeat on the Christians at Zalaca. In despair at this disaster and at the loss of Santarem and of Lisbon, Alfonso appealed to Christendom for help. Among those who came were Count Raymond of Toulouse, who was ...

— Portuguese Architecture • Walter Crum Watson

... expected to hear of his surrendering. The last news that had reached them brought intelligence of one man killed and two Arabs wounded; whilst, on the other side, Manua Sera had lost many men, and was put to such straits that he had called out if it was the Arabs' determination to kill him he would bolt again; to which the Arabs replied it was all the same; if he ran up to the top of the highest mountain or down into hell, they would follow after and ...

— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

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