Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STRAINT, n.

A violent stretching or tension. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

STRAIT, a. [See Straight.]

1. Narrow; close; not broad. Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it. – Matth. vii.
2. Close; intimate; as, a strait degree of favor. – Sidney.
3. Strict; rigorous. He now, forsooth, takes on him to reform / Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees. – Shak.
4. Difficult; distressful.
5. Straight; not crooked.

STRAIT, n. [See Straight.]

1. A narrow pass or passage, either in a mountain or in the ocean, between continents or other portions of land; as, the straits of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the straits of Dover. [In this sense, the plural is more generally used than the singular, and often without any apparent reason or propriety.]
2. Distress; difficulty; distressing necessity; formerly written streight. [Used either in the singular or plural.] Let no man who owns a Providence, become desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever. – South. Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts. – Broome.

STRAIT, v.t.

To put to difficulties. [Not in use.] – Shak.

STRAIT-EDGE, n.

A small board or piece of metal having one edge perfectly strait; used to ascertain whether a surface is perfectly plane.

STRAIT'EN, v.t. [stra'itn.]

1. To make narrow. In narrow circuit, straiten'd by a foe. – Milton.
2. To contract; to confine; as, to straiten the British commerce. – Addison.
3. To make tense or tight; as, to straiten a cord. – Dunciad.
4. To distress; to perplex; to press with poverty or other necessity; as, a man straitened in his circumstances.
5. To press by want of sufficient room. Waters when straitened, as at the falls of bridges, give a roaring noise. – Bacon.

STRAIT'EN-ED, pp.

Made narrow; contracted; perplexed.

STRAIT-HAND-ED, a. [strait and hand.]

Parsimonious; sparing; niggardly. [Not much used.]

STRAIT-HAND'ED-NESS, n.

Niggardliness; parsimony. – Hall.

STRAIT-LAC-ED, a. [strait and lace.]

1. Griped with stays. We have few well-shaped that are strait-laced. – Locke.
2. Stiff; constrained. Hence,
3. Rigid in opinion; strict.

STRAIT'LY, adv.

1. Narrowly; closely.
2. Strictly; rigorously. [For this, strictly is now used.]
3. Closely; intimately.

STRAIT'NESS, n.

1. Narrowness; as, the straitness of a place; straitness of mind; straitness of circumstances. – Bacon.
2. Strictness; rigor; as, the straitness of a man's proceedings. – Shak.
3. Distress; difficulty; pressure from necessity of any kind, particularly from poverty.
4. Want; scarcity; or rather narrowness; as, the straitness of the conveniences of life. – Locke.

STRAIT-WAIST-COAT, or STRAIT-JACK-ET, n.

An apparatus to confine the limbs of a distracted person.

STRAKE, n. [Sp. traca.]

1. A streak. [Not used, unless in reference to the range of planks in a ship's side. See Streak.]
2. A narrow board. [Not used.]
3. The iron band of a wheel. [In the United States, this is called a band, or the tire of wheel.]

STRAKE, v. [pret. of Strike. Obs. See Strike.]

STRAM, v.i. [Dan. strammer, to stretch, to spread.]

To spread out the limbs; to sprawl. [Local and vulgar.]

STRAM'ASH, v.t. [It. stramazzare.]

To strike, beat, or bang; to break; to destroy. [Local and vulgar.] – Grose.

STRA-MIN'E-OUS, a. [L. stramineus, from stramen, straw.]

1. Strawy; consisting of straw. – Robinson.
2. Chaffy; like straw; light. – Burton.

STRAND, n. [Sax. strand; G. D. Dan. and Sw. strand.]

1. The shore or beach of the sea or ocean, or of a large lake, and perhaps of a navigable river. It is never used of the bank of a small river or pond. The Dutch on the Hudson apply it to a landing place; as, the strand at Kingston.
2. One of the twists or parts of which a rope is composed. [Russ. struna, a cord or string.] – Mar. Dict.

STRAND, v.i.

To drift or be driven on shore; to run aground; as, a ship strands at high water.

STRAND, v.t.

1. To drive or run aground on the sea shore, as a ship.
2. To break one of the strands of a rope. – Mar. Dict.

STRAND'ED, pp.

1. Run ashore.
2. Having a strand broken.

STRAND'ING, ppr.

Running ashore; breaking a strand.

STRANGE, a. [Fr. etrange; It. strano, strange, foreign, pale, wan, rude, unpolite; stranare, to alienate, to remove, to abuse; straniare, to separate; Sp. extraño, foreign, extraneous, rare, wild; L. extraneus; W. estronaiz, strange; estrawn, a stranger. The primary sense of the root tran, is to depart, to proceed; W. trawn, over; traw, an advance or distance.]

1. Foreign; belonging to another country. I do not contemn the knowledge of strange and divers tongues. [This sense is nearly obsolete.] – Ascham.
2. Not domestic; belonging to others. So she, impatient her own faults to see, / Turns from herself, and in strange things delights. – Davies. [Nearly obsolete.]
3. New; not before known, heard, or seen. The former custom was familiar; the latter was strange to them. Hence,
4. Wonderful; causing surprise; exciting curiosity. It is strange that men will not receive improvement, when it is shown to be improvement. Sated at length, ere long I might perceive / Strange alteration in me. – Milton.
5. Odd; unusual; irregular; not according to the common way. He's strange and peevish. – Shak.
6. Remote. [Little used.] – Shak.
7. Uncommon; unusual. This made David to admire the law of God at that strange rate. – Tillotson.
8. Unacquainted. They were now at a gage, looking strange at one another. – Bacon.
9. Strange is sometimes uttered by way of exclamation. Strange! what extremes should thus preserve the snow, / High on the Alps, or in deep caves below. – Waller. This is an elliptical expression for it is strange.

STRANGE, v.i.

1. To wonder; to be astonished. [Not in use.] – Glanville.
2. To be estranged or alienated. [Not in use.]