different between strait vs stress

English

Alternative forms

• streight (obsolete)
• streit (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus, perfect passive participle of string? (“compress, tighten”). Doublet of stretto and strict.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?e?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t
• Homophone: straight

Adjective

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)

1. (archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or room; close.
   • 1866, Algernon Swinburne, “Aholibah” in Poems and Ballads, London: John Camden Hotten, p. 311,^[1]

     Sweet oil was poured out on thy head

     And ran down like cool rain between

     The strait close locks it melted in.

   • 1894, Ernest Dowson, “To One in Bedlam” in The Second Book of The Rhymers’ Club, London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, p. 35,^[3]

     Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line

     His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,

     Pedant and pitiful.

2. (archaic) Righteous, strict.
3. (obsolete) Tight; close; tight-fitting.
4. (obsolete) Close; intimate; near; familiar.
5. (obsolete) Difficult; distressful.
   • 18th c., Thomas Secker, Sermons on Several Subjects, 2nd edition, 1771, Volume III, Sermon XI, p. 253,^[4]

     But to make your strait Circumstances yet straiter, for the Sake of idle Gratifications, and distress yourselves in Necessaries, only to indulge in Trifles and Vanities, delicate Food, shewish Dress, ensnaring Diversions, is every Way wrong.

6. (obsolete) Parsimonious; stingy; mean.

Translations

Usage notes

The adjective is often confused with straight.

Derived terms

• straitjacket
• strait-laced

Noun

strait (plural straits)

1. (geography) A narrow channel of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
2. A narrow pass, passage or street.
3. A neck of land; an isthmus.
4. (often in the plural) A difficult position.
   • 1684, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached at Westminster-Abbey” in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bennett, 1692, p. 420,^[5]

     […] let no man, who owns the Belief of a Providence, grow desperate or forlorn, under any Calamity or Strait whatsoever […]

Derived terms

• dire straits
• Menai Strait

Translations

Verb

strait (third-person singular simple present straits, present participle straiting, simple past and past participle straited)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To confine; put to difficulties.
   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed’s Chronicles, London: 1577, Volume 1, The Historie of Englande, p. 3,^[6]

     After Bardus, the Celtes […] were in short tyme, and with small labour broughte vnder the subiection of the Giaunt Albion, the sonne of Neptune, who altering the state of things here in this yland, straited the name of Celtica and the Celtes within the boundes of Gallia […]

   • 1658, William Sanderson, A Compleat History of the Life and Raigne of King Charles, London: Humphrey Moseley et al., p. 885,^[7]

     The King, Duke of York, Prince Rupert and Maurice are still at Oxford closely surrounded by the Parliaments Forces, and the other not well resolving what course to take, all their Horse being about Faringdon, in expectation of the Lord Ashley with his Foot to joyn in a Body, if they be not prevented by Colonel Fleetwood and Rainsborough, straiting and allarming Oxford very often […]

2. (obsolete, transitive) To tighten.

Adverb

strait (comparative straiter, superlative straitest)

1. (obsolete) Strictly; rigorously.

Further reading

• strait on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Rattis, artist, atrist, ittars, star it, strati, traits

English

Etymology

From a shortening of Middle English destresse, borrowed from Old French destrecier, from Latin distring? (“to stretch out”). This form probably coalesced with Middle English stresse, from Old French estrece (“narrowness”), from Vulgar Latin *strictia, from Latin strictus (“narrow”).

In the sense of "mental strain" or “disruption”, used occasionally in the 1920s and 1930s by psychologists, including Walter Cannon (1934); in “biological threat”, used by endocrinologist Hans Selye, by metaphor with stress in physics (force on an object) in the 1930s, and popularized by same in the 1950s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

stress (countable and uncountable, plural stresses)

1. (biology) A physical, chemical, infective agent aggressing an organism.
2. (biology) Aggression toward an organism resulting in a response in an attempt to restore previous conditions.
3. (countable, physics) The internal distribution of force across a small boundary per unit area of that boundary (pressure) within a body. It causes strain or deformation and is typically symbolised by ? or ?.
4. (countable, physics) Force externally applied to a body which cause internal stress within the body.
5. (uncountable) Emotional pressure suffered by a human being or other animal.

6. (uncountable, phonetics) The emphasis placed on a syllable of a word.

7. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on words in speaking.
8. (uncountable) Emphasis placed on a particular point in an argument or discussion (whether spoken or written).
9. Obsolete form of distress.
10. (Scotland, law) distress; the act of distraining; also, the thing distrained.

Synonyms

• (phonetics): accent, emphasis
• (on words in speaking): emphasis
• (on a point): emphasis

Derived terms

• stress deafness
• stress-free, stressfree
• stressful
• stresswise

Translations

Verb

stress (third-person singular simple present stresses, present participle stressing, simple past and past participle stressed)

1. (transitive) To apply force to (a body or structure) causing strain.
2. (transitive) To apply emotional pressure to (a person or animal).
3. (intransitive, informal) To suffer stress; to worry or be agitated.
4. (transitive) To emphasise (a syllable of a word).

5. (transitive) To emphasise (words in speaking).
6. (transitive) To emphasise (a point) in an argument or discussion.

Synonyms

• (phonetics): emphasise/emphasize
• (on words in speaking): emphasise/emphasize
• (on a point): emphasise/emphasize, underline

Derived terms

• de-stress, destress
• stressed
• stress out

Translations

References

Related terms

• strain
• strait
• strict
• stringent
• stringency

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?sd???s], [?sd??as], [?sd???s]

Noun

stress c or n (singular definite stressen or stresset, not used in plural)

1. stress

Derived terms

• stresse (verb)
• stresset (adjective)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

stress m (uncountable)

1. stress

Derived terms

• stressen (“to be stressed”)
• stresskip
• stresskonijn

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st??s/

Noun

stress m (uncountable)

1. stress (emotional pressure)

Derived terms

• stresser

Further reading

• “stress” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Icelandic

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /str?s?/
• Rhymes: -?s?

Noun

stress n (genitive singular stress, no plural)

1. stress

Declension

Related terms

• stressa
• stressaður

Indonesian

Noun

stress (first-person possessive stressku, second-person possessive stressmu, third-person possessive stressnya)

1. Nonstandard spelling of stres.

Adjective

stress (plural stress-stress)

1. Nonstandard spelling of stres.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Noun

stress m (invariable)

1. stress

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Verb

stress

1. imperative of stresse

Portuguese

Noun

stress m (plural stresses)

1. Alternative form of estresse

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /es?t?es/, [es?t??es]

Noun

stress m (plural stresses)

1. stress

   Synonym: estrés

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English stress.

Noun

stress c (uncountable)

1. stress

Declension