| 释义 |
straitened, ppl. a.|ˈstreɪt(ə)nd|
[f. straiten v. + -ed1.]
In various senses of the verb.
1. Contracted, narrowed; insufficiently spacious.
1602[J. Willis] Art Stenogr. A 5, Stenographie, signifieth a straightned or compendious Writing. 1694Addison Poems, Virg. Georg. iv. 375 First then a close contracted space of ground, With streighten'd walls and low-built roof they found. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 154 The king's lion..traversed the limits of his straightened dominions. 1800Ht. Lee Canterb. T. (ed. 2) III. 153 He was..in lodgings rather straitened and inconvenient. 1822–7Good Study Med. (1829) V. 80 About half an inch within the orifice of the urethra, at which part the passage feels peculiarly straitened. 1842Tennyson Locksley Hall 62 Cursed be the gold that gilds the straiten'd forehead of the fool! 1866Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxiii. 601 Anticipations of excessive demand or of exceedingly straitened supply. 1890Bridges Shorter Poems iii. vii, We steered Along a straitened channel flecked with foam.
†b. Limited in power or range of action.
a1665J. Goodwin Being filled with the Spirit (1867) 328 They that bring up such a report as this upon the Spirit, as that he is but a finite spirit, a created spirit, a straitened spirit, what do they do else but [etc.].
c. Contracted in intelligence or sympathy.
1712Waterland Serm. Wks. 1823 VIII. 374 That we may not..grow straitened and narrow in our affections. 1860J. W. Warter Sea-board & Down II. 400 He has but a limited and a straitened mind who [etc.].
d. straitened circumstances: inadequate means of living, poverty. Also straitened income, straitened means.
a1766F. Sheridan Sidney Bidulph (1796) IV. 4 They believed she was in straitened circumstances. 1813Sketches of Character (ed. 2) I. 21 There remained but a straightened income for the widow. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. x, To remind her of her straitened and altered circumstances. 1877Mrs. Oliphant Yng. Musgrave I. 7 So far as his straitened means and limited stables permitted.
2. Confined in narrow space; having too little room; closely besieged.
1757W. Wilkie Epigoniad vi. 175 Now, when hostile pow'rs With strictest siege invest our strait'ned tow'rs. 1854S. Dobell Balder i. Poet. Works 1875 II. 11 You floors, in whose black oak The straitened hamadryad lives and groans.
3. Drawn tight; tightened.
1665Dryden Ind. Emp. v. ii, Fasten the Engines; stretch 'em at their length, And pull the streightened Cords with all your strength. 1716Pope Iliad v. 325 My Horses here detain, Fix'd to the Chariot by the straiten'd Rein. 1742Young Nt. Th. iv. 397 Or holds he furious storms in streighten'd reins, And bids fierce whirlwinds wheel his rapid car?
4. Reduced to hardship or privation; having straitened means (see 1 d).
1716Pope Iliad v. 255, I..thought the Steeds (your large Supplies unknown) Might fail of Forage in the straiten'd Town. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. cii. III. 438 But even in the East a good many may come from straitened homes. 1911G. M. Trevelyan Garibaldi & Making of Italy ii. 36 Sums..which represented the widow's mite in many straitened Italian households. |