Word.ws English Dictionary

streight

streight is the obsolete spelling of strait.

streight is the obsolete spelling of straight.

Meaning of strait

Noun

strait (plural straits)

  1. A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
    • the Strait of Gibraltar
  2. A narrow pass, passage or street.
    • He brought him through a darksom narrow strayt,
      To a broad gate all built of beaten gold:1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 282
  3. A neck of land; an isthmus.
    • The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
      Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights,
      And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
      A broken chancel with a broken cross,
      That stood on a dark strait of barren land.1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 4
  4. (in plural, often) A difficult position.
    • to be in dire straits

See all 14 meanings of strait

Meaning of straight

Adjective

straight (comparative straighter, superlative straightest)

  1. Not crooked, curly, or bent; having a constant direction throughout its length.
    • I do not like crooked, twisted, blasted trees. I admire them much more if they are tall, straight and flourishing.1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
  2. (usually, trajectory) Direct, undeviating.
    • Now, as the world knows, the straightest way to the heart of the honest voter is through the women of the land, and the straightest way to the heart of the women is through the children of the land; and one method of winning both, with rural politicians, is to kiss the babies wide and far.1913, John Fox, Jr., The Kentuckians, page 185
  3. Perfectly horizontal or vertical; not diagonal or oblique.
    • Mr. Coniff: He did not have his hat on straight; that is the one thing, is it?1925, United States House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee No. 1, Charges Against William E. Baker, U.S. District Judge
  4. Describing the bat as held so as not to incline to either side; on, or near a line running between the two wickets.
    • Steyn continues and it's all a bit more orderly down his end as O'Brien defends the first three balls with a straight bat and a respectful dip of the head.2011 March 15, Alan Gardner, Barney Ronay, The Guardian
  5. Having all cylinders in a single straight line; in-line.
  6. Direct in communication; unevasive, straightforward.
    • Tony Blair issued a direct challenge to the IRA yesterday when he demanded they give straight answers to three simple questions[…].2003 April 24, Rosie Cowan, The Guardian

See all 40 meanings of straight

Forms of streight

Noun
pluralstreights
Adjective
comparativemore streight
superlativemost streight

Questions about streight

What is streight the obsolete spelling of?
Streight is the obsolete spelling of strait.

Words near streight in the dictionary

  1. Streicher
  2. Streichers
  3. streichmelodion
  4. Streiff
  5. Streiffs
  6. streight
  7. streighten
  8. streightened
  9. streights
  10. streigne
  11. streigned

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: streight (page history and authors); strait (page history and authors); straight (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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Cite this entry: “streight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/streight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.