Word.ws English Dictionary

straightened

straightened is the simple past and past participle of straighten.

Meaning of straighten

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To cause to become straight.
    • [S]o / Do these upbear the little world below / Of Education,—Patience, Love, and Hope. / Methinks, I see them group'd in seemly show, / The straiten'd arms upraised, the palms aslope, / And robes that touching as adown they flow, / Distinctly blend, like snow emboss'd in snow.1830, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “[Sibylline Leaves.] Love, Hope, and Patience in Education.”, in The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co....
  2. (intransitive) To become straight.
  3. (transitive) To put in order; to sort; to tidy up.
    • to straighten one's affairs
  4. (transitive) To clarify a situation or concept to (an audience).
  5. (slang, transitive) To bribe or corrupt.
  6. (intransitive) To stand up, especially from a sitting position.

See all 7 meanings of straighten

Words formed from straightened

Phrases with straightened

Questions about straightened

What is straightened the simple past and past participle of?
Straightened is the simple past and past participle of straighten.

Words near straightened in the dictionary

  1. straighten one's face
  2. straighten out
  3. straighten up
  4. straighten up and fly right
  5. straightenable
  6. straightened
  7. straightened out
  8. straightened up
  9. straightened up and flew right
  10. straightened up and flown right
  11. straightener

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straightened (page history and authors); straighten (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-straightened.ogg.

Cite this entry: “straightened.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/straightened. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.