different between strait vs want

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 1

From Middle English wanten (“to lack”), from Old Norse vanta (“to lack”), from Proto-Germanic *wanat?n? (“to be wanting, lack”), from *wanô (“lack, deficiency”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?weh?- (“empty”). Cognate with Middle High German wan (“not full, empty”), Middle Dutch wan (“empty, poor”), Old English wana (“want, lack, absence, deficiency”), Latin vanus (“empty”). See wan, wan-.

Alternative forms

• waunt (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/
• (US) enPR: w?nt, w?nt, wônt IPA^(key): /w?nt/, /w?nt/, /w?nt/
• (General Australian) enPR: w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/
• (General New Zealand) enPR: w?nt, w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/, (nonstandard) /w?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt, -?nt, -??nt
• Homophone: wont

Verb

want (third-person singular simple present wants, present participle wanting, simple past and past participle wanted)

1. (transitive) To wish for or desire (something); to feel a need or desire for; to crave or demand. [from 18th c.]
   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     I want to find a supermarket. — Oh, okay. The supermarket is at 1500 Irving Street. It is near the apartment. — Great!

   1. (by extension) To make it easy or tempting to do something undesirable, or to make it hard or challenging to refrain from doing it.

      The game developers of Candy Crush want you to waste large, copious amounts of your money on in-game purchases to buy boosters and lives.

      Depression wants you to feel like the world is dark and that you are not worthy of happiness. The first step to making your life better from this day forward is to stop believing these lies.

2. (transitive, in particular) To wish, desire, or demand to see, have the presence of or do business with.

   Ma’am, you are exactly the professional we want for this job.

   Danish police want him for embezzlement.

   • 2010, Fred Vargas, The Chalk Circle Man, Vintage Canada (?ISBN), page 75:

     But now it's different, if the police want him for murder.

3. (intransitive) To desire (to experience desire); to wish.
   • 2019 May 5, "The Last of the Starks", Game of Thrones season 8 episode 4 (written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss):

     TYRION: You don't want it?

     BRAN: I don't really want anymore.

4. (colloquial, usually second person, often future tense) To be advised to do something (compare should, ought).

5. (transitive, now colloquial) To lack and be in need of or require (something, such as a noun or verbal noun). [from 15th c.]
   • 1741, The Gentleman's and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, 1741-1794, page 559:

     The lady, it is said, will inherit a fortune of three hundred pounds a year, with two cool thousands left by an uncle, on her arriving at the age of twenty-one, of which she wants but a few months.

   • 1839, Chambers's Journal, page 123:

     Oh Jeanie, it will be hard, after every thing is ready for our happiness, if we should be sundered. It wants but a few days o' Martinmas, and then I maun enter on my new service on Loch Rannoch, where a bonny shieling is ready ...

   • 1847, The American Protestant, page 27:

     In this we have just read an address to children in England, Ireland, and Scotland, in behalf of children who want food to keep them from starvation.

   • 1866, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 7:

     “Your hair wants cutting,” said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Chapter 2:

     The mowing-machine always wanted oiling. Barnet turned it under Jacob's window, and it creaked—creaked, and rattled across the lawn and creaked again.

6. (transitive, now rare) To have occasion for (something requisite or useful); to require or need.
   • 1742, Edward Young, Night Thoughts:

     Man wants but little, nor that little long.

   • 1776, Oliver Goldsmith, Hermit, in The Vicar of Wakefield:

     Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long.

   • 1854', Henry David Thoreau, Walden Economy

     [...] for my greatest skill has been to want but little.

7. (intransitive, dated) To be lacking or deficient or absent. [from 13th c.]
   • , Preface

     The disposition, the manners, and the thoughts are all before it; where any of those are wanting or imperfect, so much wants or is imperfect in the imitation of human life.
8. (intransitive, dated) To be in a state of destitution; to be needy; to lack.

   • You have a gift, sir (thank your education), / Will never let you want.

9. (transitive, archaic) To lack and be without, to not have (something). [from 13th c.]
   • 1765, James Merrick, Psalams

     Not what we wish, but what we want, / Oh, let thy grace supply!

   • 1981, A. D. Hope, "His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell," A Book of Answers:

     Pray Mr Marvell, can it be / You think to have persuaded me? / Then let me say: you want the art / To woo, much less to win my heart.

10. (transitive, obsolete, by extension) To lack and (be able to) do without.
    • 1797, The European Magazine, and London Review, page 226:

      For Law, Physick and Divinitie, need so the help of tongs and sciences, as thei can not want them, and yet thei require so a hole mans studie, as thei may parte with no tyme to other lerning, ...

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb want had the form wantest, and had wantedst for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form wanteth was used.

Synonyms

• (desire): set one's heart on, wish for, would like
• (not to have): lack, be without
• (require): need, be in need of

Derived terms

Descendants

• Chinese Pidgin English: wantchee, ??

Translations

Noun

want (countable and uncountable, plural wants)

1. (countable) A desire, wish, longing.
2. (countable, often followed by of) Lack, absence, deficiency.

   A want of sense.

   • For Want of a Nail:

     For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

     For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

     For want of a horse the rider was lost.

     For want of a rider the battle was lost.

     For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

     And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI Part 2, act 4, sc. 8:

     [H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels.
3. (uncountable) Poverty.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, A Preface to Bishop Burnet's Introduction

     Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches, as to conceive how others can be in want.

4. Something needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt.
   • 1785, William Paley, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy

     Habitual superfluities become actual wants.

5. (Britain, mining) A depression in coal strata, hollowed out before the subsequent deposition took place.

Derived terms

• want ad
• wantful
• wantless
• wantsome
• wanty

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wont (“mole”), from Old English wand, wond, from Proto-Germanic *wanduz.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?nt, IPA^(key): /w?nt/

Noun

want (plural wants)

1. (dialectal) mole (Talpa europea)

Further reading

• want at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

Anagrams

• tawn

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch want, from Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwand?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vant/

Conjunction

want

1. for, because

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nt/
• Hyphenation: want
• Rhymes: -?nt
• Homophone: wand

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwandê.

Conjunction

want

1. for, because, as

   Hij komt niet, want hij is ziek. — He is not coming, because he is sick. (Note: The order is SVO after want.)

Synonyms

• dewijl

Hyponyms

• omdat
• doordat

Descendants

• Afrikaans: want

See also

• aangezien
• omdat
• vermits

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch want, from Old Dutch *want, from Frankish *wantu, from Proto-Germanic *wantuz.

Noun

want f (plural wanten, diminutive wantje n)

1. A mitten, type of glove in which four fingers get only one section, besides the thumb.

Derived terms

• ovenwant

Descendants

• ? Papiamentu: wante

See also

• handschoen

Etymology 3

From Middle Dutch want, gewant, from Old Dutch *giwant, from Proto-Germanic *gawand?, from the root of winden.

Noun

want n (plural wanten, diminutive wantje n)

1. A course type of woolen fabric; anything made from it.
2. The rigging, ropes supporting masts and sails aboard a ship. shroud, sideways support for a mast.

   Synonyms: touwwerk, wantwerk

3. Various types of nets and snares for fishing, hunting or farming.
4. Horse tackle.

Derived terms

• wantborstel
• wanthuis
• wantschaar

- concerning rigging

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

want

1. second- and third-person singular present indicative of wannen
2. (archaic) plural imperative of wannen

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

from Old Dutch wanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwand?.

Conjunction

want

1. because, for

Descendants

• Dutch: want

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch *want, from Frankish *wantu.

Noun

want m

1. A glove, mitten.

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: want

Further reading

• “want (III)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “want (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “want (V)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page V

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *wanduz (“stick, rod; barrier made of sticks, fence”), whence also Old Norse v?ndr, Gothic ???????????????????????? (wandus).

Noun

want f

1. A wall.

Descendants

• Middle High German: want
  • Central Franconian: Wand, Wank
  • Cimbrian: bant
  • German: Wand
  • Hunsrik: Wand
  • Luxembourgish: Wand
  • Pennsylvania German: Wand
  • Vilamovian: waond
  • Yiddish: ??????? (vant)

Tocharian A

Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian *w'entë, from Post-PIE *h?weh?ntos, from Proto-Indo-European *h?wéh?nts, from *h?weh?- (“to blow”) (compare English wind, Latin ventus). Compare Tocharian B yente.

Noun

want

1. wind

West Frisian

Alternative forms

• hwant

Etymology

From Old Frisian hwant, hwante, hwande, hwanda, from Proto-Germanic *hwandê.

Conjunction

want

1. because

Synonyms

• omdat