straighten up

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To become straight, or straighter.
   • bank the big cruiser into the first of a series of corners, make a few quick left, right, left transitions, then the road straightens up for a stretch...2006, American Motoryclist - Jan 2006, Victory's Kingpin goes its own way
2. (ambitransitive) To steer straight.
   • 13 October 2010, Blackpool Gazette, 'Bad driving' led to biker death crash
     He said "As I came out of the bend I went to straighten up the car and it just seemed to be carrying on turning."
3. (intransitive) To sit up straight, to stop hunching.
   • Horse skin smells good. Lay your cheek against his neck and have a good cuddle. Now straighten up slowly again, and sit loosely.2005, Heike Lebherz, Riding For Pleasure
4. (transitive) To deal with; to put in order.
   • The Postal Service sent a special task force to straighten up the city's problems with a back-to-basics approach1994, Mccook Daily Gazette, Jul 12, 1994, Mail Delivery Trying To Get Up To Speed
5. (transitive) To tidy; to tidy up.
   • The lockers were all standing wide open with equipment and uniforms scattered all over the room, he had left a note under the bottle telling me to straighten up the room, then straighten myself up before coming to work the next day.2005, Richard R. Simmons, A Long Hard Ride
6. (transitive) To clarify.
7. (idiomatic, intransitive) To start living a reformed life; to adopt a more honest and respectable course of behavior.