streighten

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

Verb

straiten (third-person singular simple present straitens, present participle straitening, simple past and past participle straitened)

1. To make strait; to narrow or confine to a smaller space.
   • The channel straitened the river through the town, made it flow faster, and caused more flooding upstream.

   Synonyms:

   contract

2. To restrict or diminish, especially financially.
   • And the reason why Birds are Oviparous and lay Eggs, but do not bring forth their yong alive, is, because there might be more plenty of them also, and that neither the Birds of prey, the Serpent nor the Fowler, should streighten their generations too much.1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 67

   Synonyms:

   check