straightening

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