| 释义 |
the straight and narrow
the straight and narrowA morally upright way of life. I need to stay on the straight and narrow so I don't get arrested again.See also: and, narrow, straightthe straight and narrowFig. a straight and law-abiding route through life. (Referring to a morally rigid and correct course of behavior. Fixed order.) You should have no trouble with the police if you stick to the straight and narrow. Roger was the kind who followed the straight and narrow every day of his life.See also: and, narrow, straightstraight and narrow, theThe honest and upright way of living, as in He led a wild life when he was young, but he's been on the straight and narrow for some years . This expression is widely though to come from confusion of straight, "not crooked," with strait, "narrow," owing to a misinterpretation of a passage from the New Testament: "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life" (Matthew 7:14). The current phrase dates only from the first half of the 1800s. See also: and, straightthe straight and narrow COMMON If someone or something keeps you on the straight and narrow, they help you to live a good, honest life and prevent you from doing immoral or illegal things. He now had his faith to keep him on the straight and narrow. Note: You can also say that someone strays from the straight and narrow, meaning that they stop living a good, honest life and do something immoral or illegal. The goal is to prevent them from straying from the straight and narrow. Note: `Straight' was originally `strait', which meant `narrow'. The expression probably refers to a passage in the Bible: `Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.'(Matthew 7:14) See also: and, narrow, straightthe straight and narrow morally correct behaviour. The full form of the expression is the straight and narrow path or way . It developed from a misunderstanding of Matthew 7:14, ‘strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life’, where strait is in fact being used as another word for narrow .See also: and, narrow, straightstraight and narrow, (walk) the(Follow) the path of virtue. This term probably alludes to the biblical caution, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life” (Matthew 7:14), life here meaning salvation. Following the straight and narrow, however, was largely a Victorian concept of rectitude, and the term became current in the nineteenth century. John Dos Passos used it in The 42nd Parallel (1930): “Robbins . . . said that he . . . would have to follow the straight and narrow.”See also: and, straight |