\Strait\, a.
A variant of {Straight}. [Obs.]

\Strait\, a. [Compar. {Straiter}; superl. {Straitest}.]
[OE. straight, streyt, streit, OF. estreit, estroit, F.
['e]troit, from L. strictus drawn together, close, tight, p.
p. of stringere to draw tight. See 2nd {Strait}, and cf.
{Strict}.]
1. Narrow; not broad.
         Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
         leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
                                               --Matt. vii.
                                               14.
         Too strait and low our cottage doors. --Emerson.
2. Tight; close; closely fitting. --Shak.
3. Close; intimate; near; familiar. [Obs.] ``A strait degree
   of favor.'' --Sir P. Sidney.
4. Strict; scrupulous; rigorous.
         Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. --Shak.
         The straitest sect of our religion.   --Acts xxvi. 5
                                               (Rev. Ver.).
5. Difficult; distressful; straited.
         To make your strait circumstances yet straiter.
                                               --Secker.
6. Parsimonious; niggargly; mean. [Obs.]
         I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait, And so
         ingrateful, you deny me that.         --Shak.

\Strait\, adv.
Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.] --Shak.

\Strait\, n.; pl. {Straits}. [OE. straight, streit, OF.
estreit, estroit. See {Strait}, a.]
1. A narrow pass or passage.
         He brought him through a darksome narrow strait To a
         broad gate all built of beaten gold.  --Spenser.
         Honor travels in a strait so narrow Where one but
         goes abreast.                         --Shak.
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.                                --De Foe.
3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]
         A dark strait of barren land.         --Tennyson.
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.     --Phil. i. 23.
         Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow 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. [Obs.] --Shak.