From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Strait \Strait\, n.; pl. {Straits}. [OE. straight, streit, OF.
estreit, estroit. See {Strait}, a.]
1. A narrow pass or passage.
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He brought him through a darksome narrow strait
To a broad gate all built of beaten gold. --Spenser.
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Honor travels in a strait so narrow
Where one but goes abreast. --Shak.
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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.
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We steered directly through a large outlet which
they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles
broad. --De Foe.
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3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]
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A dark strait of barren land. --Tennyson.
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4. Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt;
distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in
the plural; as, reduced to great straits.
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For I am in a strait betwixt two. --Phil. i. 23.
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Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate
under any calamity or strait whatsoever. --South.
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Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural
infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that
time in his thoughts. --Broome.
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From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
straits
n 1: a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs [syn:
{pass}, {strait}, {straits}]
2: a difficult juncture; "a pretty pass"; "matters came to a
head yesterday" [syn: {pass}, {head}, {straits}]
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