straight
Not crooked, curly, or bent; having a constant direction throughout its length.
Adjective
- 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: […]...
- “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of...
- The other people, I presume, are supposed to be standing to attention, but they're all smiling at me. The lines are not even straight. - 2011 March 22, Adharanand Finn, The Guardian:
- 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...
- He had no time to set himself, but his throw was straight and true. Pick slid in, spikes high, and Schang tagged him in the ribs a foot or two from the plate. - 2000, Allan Wood, Babe Ruth and the 1918 Red Sox, page 293:
- Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the...
- 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
- There's nothing more annoying than taking a great picture, only to find that the horizon isn't straight. - 2004, Chris Weston, 500 Digital Photography Hints, Tips, and Techniques:
- 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:
- Having all cylinders in a single straight line; in-line.
- 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:
- What's more, he actually tries to answer a straight question with a straight answer. - 2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 50:
- Free from dishonesty; honest, law-abiding.
- ‘It wasn't the proper thing, squoire. It wasn't straight.’ - 1879, Anthony Trollope, John Caldigate:
- How easy is it to go straight after a life spent in and out of prison? - 2010 August 4, The Guardian, Out of prison and trying to go straight:
- Serious rather than comedic.
- Allan Blye, a CBC-TV mainstay in the early Sixties, worked as a singer, writer and straight and comedic actor. - 1988, Ed Gould, Entertaining Canadians: Canada's international stars, 1900-1988, Cappis Pr Pub Ltd, →ISBN:
- All of Peter Schickele's music, both straight and comedic are integrated side by side in this chapter. - 2004, Tammy Ravas, Peter Schickele: A Bio-bibliography, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN:
- More success followed, both straight and comedic, with hits such as Dead Poets' Society (1989), in which Williams scored another Oscar nomination for skilfully handling a classic "rogue teacher" role that hovers just...
- In proper order; as it should be.
- Oh, music, how he loved it; it seemed to set everything straight all at once in his head. - 2007, Grant Allen, What's Bred in the Bone, page 140:
- "If you wonder why folks can't take the news seriously, here's Exhibit A," said one blogger. "Lord Jesus, how can the reporter file this story with a straight face?" - 2010 August 15, Paul Gallagher, The Observer:
- In a row, in unbroken sequence; consecutive.
- After four straight wins, Mudchester United are top of the league.
- It moves them from 17th to 12th on seven points, while Bolton are now bottom of the table with five straight defeats. - 2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3-0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport:
- As of October 29th, three-month dollar Libor (the rate at which banks borrow from each other) had fallen for 13 straight days and was nearly one-and-a-half percentage points below its October 10th level. - 2008 October...
- Describing the sets in a match of which the winner did not lose a single set.
- Murray started well against Marcos Baghdatis before slumping to defeat in straight sets and the British No1 admitted he may not have been mentally prepared for the rigours of the ATP Tour after a gruelling start to...
- Making no exceptions or deviations in one's support of the organization and candidates of a political party.
- a straight Republican
- a straight Democrat
Origin
From Middle English streight, streght, streiȝt, the past participle of strecchen (“to stretch”), from Old English streċċan (past participle ġestreaht, ġestreht), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch”). Cognate with Scots straicht (“straight”), Dutch gestrekt (“stretched”), German gestreckt (“stretched”), Danish strakt (“stretched”), Faroese and Norn strekti (“stretched”), Icelandic strekkti (“stretched”), Norwegian strekte (“stretched”), Swedish sträckte (“stretched”). Doublet of straught. Equivalent to stretch + -ed. In some senses, conflated with strait (“narrow, constricted”), which is from Latin strictus via Old French estreit.
Forms
Antonyms
Derived
antistraight arrow-straight backstraight bone-straight costraight damn straight draw a straight furrow enstraighten gay-straight alliance get one's head straight get one's priorities straight get one's story straight get straight go straight have one's head screwed on straight I'm straight inside straight draw keep straight nonstraight not see straight open ended straight draw play it straight put straight put the record straight
Adverb
- Of a direction relative to the subject, precisely; as if following a direct line.
- The door will be straight ahead of you.
- Go straight back.
- Directly; without pause, delay or detour.
- On arriving at work, he went straight to his office.
- Tartarian theeues, That lie in ambuſh, waiting for a pray: What ſhould we doe but bid them battel ſtraight, And rid the world of thoſe deteſted troopes? - c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine...
- I know thy generous temper well; / Fling but the appearance of dishonour on it, / It straight takes fire, and mounts into a blaze. - 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob]...
- Continuously; without interruption or pause.
- He claims he can hold his breath for three minutes straight.
- Of speech or information, without prevarication or holding back; directly; straightforwardly; plainly.
- "By ginger, Mudgy, you do go off the handle over nothing. I tell you straight, I was damned annoyed with you this afternoon, going pop like that at a man over nothing." - 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st...
Forms
Derived
shoot someone straight straight ahead straight-from-the-shoulder straight off straight out straight out of the gate think straight
Noun
- Something that is not crooked or bent such as a part of a road or track.
- After four grueling laps, the race had come down to a sprint. Into the straight, although my legs were burning, I called on them for more, and they responded. On my inside the maroon singlet came with me, until it was...
- Seppi started the engine, then shifted first gear and sped away into second, then third and fourth gear. Frank heard the roar of the Porsche's engine further down the straight and the back short straight. He held a...
- Five cards in sequence.
- A heterosexual.
- My friends call straights "heteros".
- A normal person; someone in mainstream society.
- You live with straights who tell you you was king / Jump when your momma tell you anything - 1971, John Lennon, “How Do You Sleep?”, in Imagine:
- Boys! Boys! You're scaring the straights, okay? Is there any way that we could do this tomorrow? - 1989, Ghostbusters II, spoken by Peter Venkman (Bill Murray):
- More importantly, Blows Against the Empire […] more than any other work revealed the split vision towards space exploration among many in the counter-culture: a romantic vision of the freedom offered by space that had...
Synonyms: basic bitch bourgeois L7 mainstreamer mainstreamist muggle mundane normal normalfag normaloid normie square straight
- A cigarette, particularly one containing tobacco instead of marijuana.
- A straight = a straighter = a straight cut, une cigarette en tabac de Virginie.] - [1923, J[oseph] Manchon, Le slang : lexique de l'anglais familier et vulgaire : précédé d'une étude sur la pronunciation et la grammaire...
Synonyms: straighter
- A chiropractor who relies solely on spinal adjustment, with no other treatments.
Antonyms: mixer
- A cat that has straight ears despite belonging to a breed that often has folded ears.
- 2021, B. J. Deming, 25 More Facts About House Cats A hopeful sign of compromise is the growing popularity of Scottish Fold "straights" (cats like Maru, without droopy ears).
Forms
Derived
back straight gut-shot straight home straight inside straight nut straight pit straight the length of the Flemington straight
Verb
- To straighten.
- One man draws out the wire , another straights it , a third cuts it , a fourth points it , a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head - 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of...