straighten out

Verb

straighten out (third-person singular simple present straightens out, present participle straightening out, simple past and past participle straightened out)

1. (transitive) To make straight.
   • Straighten out your necktie and comb your hair.
   • "Then bring them to me," she said. And when the tinsmiths came, bringing with them all their tools in baskets, she inquired, "Can you straighten out those dents in the Tin Woodman, and bend him back into shape again, and solder him together where he is broken?"1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   straighten

2. (idiomatic, transitive) To correct or rectify.
   • I hope they can straighten out the problem with my bill soon.

   Synonyms:

   sort out

3. (idiomatic, transitive) To eliminate confusion from or concerning.
   • As soon as I straighten out which of the twins is which, I'll start calling them by their names.
   • “What have they done to stir him up?” “It's this book Daddy wrote about preparatory schools. He wrote a book about preparatory schools. Did you know he had written a book about preparatory schools?” “Hadn't an inkling. Nobody tells me anything.” “Well, he wrote this book about preparatory schools....1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   figure out, sort out, work out

4. (idiomatic, intransitive) To correct; to stop doing something wrong.
   • It is not enough to stand aside and hope problems straighten out on their own.

   Synonyms:

   work out

5. (transitive) To tidy, neaten, or organize.

   Synonyms:

   sort out, tidy up

6. (transitive, Mafia slang) To be made a made man in a Mafia organization.
7. (informal, transitive) To make heterosexual.
   • Rather superficial is the "medical" essay by Richard Green, who has previously been known as the psychologist who tortured boys with the "sissy syndrome." He's just completed a degree in law at Yale (presumably he's preparing for all the malpractice suits from parents who paid him to "straighten...1987 December 27, Charley Shively, “AIDS In The Mind Of The Left And The Mainstream”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 24, page 10
   • This is "straightened out" version of Lilian Hellman's lesbian-oriented melodramatic/tragic play. In Hellman's play, a student falsely accuses two teachers of being a lesbian couple, which sends the local town into a rage. In this movie version, the kid accuses the women of a different "vice"...1993 October 16, sl...@cc.usu.edu, “GLB-TV list, 10/16/93”, in soc.motss (Usenet)