Forms: α. 5 streȝt, 5–9 streight, 6 strayght, 6– straight; β. Sc. 4 stracht, 4–5 straucht, 9 straught. [f. STRAIGHT a.]
† 1. trans. To stretch (e.g., a body on the rack); to stretch out (one’s limbs); to extend, stretch forth (a spear); refl. to lie down flat. Obs.
To straight a rope, to be hanged.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 348. Thai straucht thar speris, on athir syd.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, iii. (Andrew), 645. And bad his tormentoris but bad þane one þe croice þai suld hym stracht. Ibid., xxii. (Laurence), 337. & þar-eftyre gert hyme straucht In til framis with al þare macht.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 69. Whenne þou risys fro slepe þou salt goo a lytyl, & euenly streight out þy membres.
c. 1480. Henryson, Fox, Wolf & Cadger, 185. Ȝe mon … straucht ȝow doun in middis of the way.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxii. 67. Unto the crose of breid and lenth, To gar his lymmis langar wax, Thai straitit him with all thair strenth.
a. 1800. Lang. Johnny More, vii. in Child, Ballads, IV. 398/1. Whan the king got word o that, A solemn oath sware he, This weighty Scot sall strait a rope, And hanged he shall be.
† 2. refl. and intr. To direct one’s course, go. Obs.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 2032. Fra þe streme of struma he streȝtis & still mournes. Ibid., 3206. He streȝt him to struma & ouire þe streme ridis.
3. trans. To make straight, straighten. In later use chiefly Sc., to straighten (a stream, a boundary), to lay out (a corpse).
1530. Palsgr., 738/1. I strayght a thyng that is crokyd or bendyd, je redresse. Strayght my wande, I praye you.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, A iv. The smith cooleth his yron to straight it & strenghthen it.
1612. T. Taylor, Titus ii. 6. (1619), 404. Experience wisheth vs to … straight a tree while it is a twigge.
1725. P. Walker, Life Peden, Biog. Presbyt. (1827), I. 74. She … straighted his Body, and covered him with her Plaid.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 295. If a view to inclosing makes it necessary to straight the ridges, the levelling them should be the work of several years.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. i. 6. One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 365. Some brooks, which ran slowly with a winding course … have been streighted.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxiii. if the dead corpse binna straughted, it will girn and thraw, and that will fear the best o’ us.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 936. All the ceilings … are … to be properly straighted (made even or smooth with the edge of a board or float).
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., s.v. Marches, By the act 1669, c. 17, landholders may apply for a streighting of marches, and the judge ordinary may streight them.
1861. Mrs. Stowe, Pearl Orr’s Isl., 18. Zephaniah Pennel straighted his tall form,—before bowed on his hands.
† b. To compose, clear up (care). Obs.
1604. Breton, Pass. Sheph. (Grosart), 9/1. Thus let all your Cares be straited.
Hence Straighted ppl. a.
1835. Fraser’s Mag., XII. 13. The widow herself was a dead and straighted corpse.
