All 3 Uses of
strait
in
Gulliver's Travels
- We landed at a small port-town called Xamoschi, situated on the south-east part of Japan; the town lies on the western point, where there is a narrow strait leading northward into along arm of the sea, upon the north-west part of which, Yedo, the metropolis, stands.†
Chpt 3 *strait = narrow water passage
- The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to what straits his majesty's revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable; that the secretary's expedient of putting out your eyes, was so far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is manifest from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat; that his sacred majesty and the council, who are your judges, were, in their own consciences, fully convinced of your guilt, which was a sufficient argument to condemn you to death, without the formal proofs required by the strict letter of the law.†
Chpt 1
- We then set sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of Madagascar;†
Chpt 2
Definitions:
-
(1)
(strait as in: Strait of Hormuz) a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of water
-
(2)
(strait as in: put her in a tough strait) a bad or difficult situation
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(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Less commonly, strait can mean narrow or cramped -- as used in the compound word straitjacket. Similarly, it can mean rigid as in strait-laced.
These words are sometimes spelled straight*, but strait is a different word than straight -- which has many meanings.