straight

comparative straighter · superlative straightest · alternative obsolete streight

1. Not crooked, curly, or bent; having a constant direction throughout its length.First known use 14th c.

   I do not like crooked, twisted, blasted trees. I admire them much more if they are tall, straight and flourishing.

   1811, [Jane Austen], Sense and Sensibility […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better.[…]”

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   The other people, I presume, are supposed to be standing to attention, but they're all smiling at me. The lines are not even straight.

   2011 March 22, Adharanand Finn, The Guardian

2. usuallytrajectoryDirect, undeviating.First known use 15th c.

   He had no time to set himself, but his throw was straight and true. Pick slid in, spikes high, and Schang tagged him in the ribs a foot or two from the plate.

   2000, Allan Wood, Babe Ruth and the 1918 Red Sox, page 293

   2 more examples

   Now, as the world knows, the straightest way to the heart of the honest voter is through the women of the land, and the straightest way to the heart of the women is through the children of the land; and one method of winning both, with rural politicians, is to kiss the babies wide and far.

   1913, John Fox, Jr., The Kentuckians, page 185

   Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

   2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55

3. Perfectly horizontal or vertical; not diagonal or oblique.First known use 17th c.

   Mr. Coniff: He did not have his hat on straight; that is the one thing, is it?

   1925, United States House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee No. 1, Charges Against William E. Baker, U.S. District Judge

   1 more example

   There's nothing more annoying than taking a great picture, only to find that the horizon isn't straight.

   2004, Chris Weston, 500 Digital Photography Hints, Tips, and Techniques

4. ball gamesDescribing the bat as held so as not to incline to either side; on, or near a line running between the two wickets.First known use 19th c.

   Steyn continues and it's all a bit more orderly down his end as O'Brien defends the first three balls with a straight bat and a respectful dip of the head.

   2011 March 15, Alan Gardner, Barney Ronay, The Guardian

5. engineeringHaving all cylinders in a single straight line; in-line.
6. Direct in communication; unevasive, straightforward.First known use 19th c.

   What's more, he actually tries to answer a straight question with a straight answer.

   2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 50

   1 more example

   Tony Blair issued a direct challenge to the IRA yesterday when he demanded they give straight answers to three simple questions[…].

   2003 April 24, Rosie Cowan, The Guardian

7. Free from dishonesty; honest, law-abiding.First known use 16th c.

   ‘It wasn't the proper thing, squoire. It wasn't straight.’

   1879, Anthony Trollope, John Caldigate

   1 more example

   How easy is it to go straight after a life spent in and out of prison?

   2010 August 4, The Guardian, Out of prison and trying to go straight

8. Serious rather than comedic.

   All of Peter Schickele's music, both straight and comedic are integrated side by side in this chapter.

   2004, Tammy Ravas, Peter Schickele: A Bio-bibliography, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Allan Blye, a CBC-TV mainstay in the early Sixties, worked as a singer, writer and straight and comedic actor.

   1988, Ed Gould, Entertaining Canadians: Canada's international stars, 1900-1988, Cappis Pr Pub Ltd, →ISBN

   More success followed, both straight and comedic, with hits such as Dead Poets' Society (1989), in which Williams scored another Oscar nomination for skilfully handling a classic "rogue teacher" role that hovers just this side of sentimentality,[…]

   2005, Bob McCabe, The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies, Rough Guides Limited

9. In proper order; as it should be.First known use 19th c.

   Oh, music, how he loved it; it seemed to set everything straight all at once in his head.

   2007, Grant Allen, What's Bred in the Bone, page 140

   1 more example

   "If you wonder why folks can't take the news seriously, here's Exhibit A," said one blogger. "Lord Jesus, how can the reporter file this story with a straight face?"

   2010 August 15, Paul Gallagher, The Observer

10. In a row, in unbroken sequence; consecutive.First known use 19th c.

    After four straight wins, Mudchester United are top of the league.

    2 more examples

    It moves them from 17th to 12th on seven points, while Bolton are now bottom of the table with five straight defeats.

    2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3-0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport

    As of October 29th, three-month dollar Libor (the rate at which banks borrow from each other) had fallen for 13 straight days and was nearly one-and-a-half percentage points below its October 10th level.

    2008 October 30, “Bad vibrations”, in The Economist

11. hobbiesDescribing the sets in a match of which the winner did not lose a single set.First known use 19th c.

    Murray started well against Marcos Baghdatis before slumping to defeat in straight sets and the British No1 admitted he may not have been mentally prepared for the rigours of the ATP Tour after a gruelling start to 2011.

    2011 February 10, Press Association

12. USgovernmentMaking no exceptions or deviations in one's support of the organization and candidates of a political party.

    a straight Democrat

    1 more example

    a straight Republican

13. USgovernmentContaining the names of all the regularly nominated candidates of a single party and no others.

    a straight ballot

14. colloquialConventional; mainstream; socially acceptable.First known use 20th c.

    I've learned that there are two types of gays—straight gays and kinky gays.

    1983 August 20, Larry Goldsmith, quoting Joanne Prevostt Anzalone, “Pilgrim Theater Closed, 'Kinky Gays' Blamed”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 6, page 1

    4 more examples

    Although Eyles, the minor celebrity, is respected by his co-workers, he looks out of place among the dozens of short-haired, short-sleeved technocrats who man the Lab. “No doubt about it,” he says, “there are an awful lot of people around here you’d have to call straight.”

    1971 March 18, Timothy Crouse, “Don Eyles: Extra! Weird-Looking Freak Saves Apollo 14!”, in Rolling Stone

    You say you've got to go home / Well at least there's someone there that you can talk to / And you never have to face up to the night on your own / Jesus, it must be great to be straight

    1994, “Do You Remember the First Time?”, in Jarvis Cocker (lyrics), His ’n’ Hers, performed by Pulp

    ‘Her last album was a bit too straight,’ he says, ‘but this one puts her in a more contemporary framework and softens her music.’

    1998 October 17, Eileen Fitzpatrick, Dominic Pride, Billboard

    "When you say he's a straight guy, you mean[…]?" I held up my left hand as if it were a shield and spun my ring around. I told her: "He works on Wall Street.[…]He wouldn't understand my business. He's always had a straight job. His entire life he's been so – so normal that he doesn't even know how normal he is.[…]He doesn't know I'm a hooker. I'm pretending to be a straight chick. And it's working! And that makes him a straight guy. It's ... I feel like Dr. Frankenhooker."

    2007, Tracy Quan, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →ISBN

15. colloquialHeterosexual.

    STRAIGHT: a heterosexual

    [1969, David R. Reuben, chapter 8, in Everything you always wanted to know about sex but were too afraid to ask, New York: David McKay Company, Inc., published 1970, →LCCN, Homosexuals have their own language?, page 146

    5 more examples

    Ain't nobody straight in L.A. / It seems that everybody is gay

    1975, “Ain't Nobody Straight in L.A.”, in City of Angels, performed by The Miracles

    We only appear straight for the first five seconds. Just walking down the street, in the diner, or at the boardwalk, we hear, "Is she a man? Is she a woman? If she is a straight woman, what is she doing with this gay man?" We check in with each other. "What do you think, is it okay? I think we should go. I think we should cross over to the other side. Danger."

    1997, Laura Harris, Elizabeth Crocker, Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 196

    ["][…]He's a straight guy who does drag." At that, the man laughed. "Oh, you're putting me on!" He decided I must have been pulling his leg the whole time. He glanced back at my husband again. "So what's his number?" "The same as mine."

    2003, Helen Boyd, My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser, New York, N.Y.: Thunder's Mouth Press, →ISBN, page 187

    Some of my friends – gay and straight – seem unable to understand the close but platonic nature of my and Gian's relationship, but have been supportive.

    2007 September 17, Layla Kumari, The Guardian

    Angela smiles. ‘I'm straight, Zoe, and I'm happily married.’

    2011, Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home, page 273

    Synonyms: hetero

16. colloquialOccurring between people of the opposite sex (sometimes, but not always, specifically between heterosexual people).

    straight marriage, sex, relationships

    2 more examples

    However, a "man/woman relationship" with a bisexual person in it, is not a "straight" relationship[…]

    2013, Shiri Eisner, Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution, Seal Press, →ISBN, page 100

    What was possible family-wise was fairly limited, though many gays, lesbians, and bisexuals had children in straight relationships and then came out.

    2015, Cara Bergstrom-Lynch, Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals Becoming Parents or Remaining Childfree: Confronting Social Inequalities, Lexington Books, →ISBN, page 6

17. slangsex workRelated to conventional sexual intercourse.

    “That coffee-an’ mac you got,” a French girl would crack to a straight one, and then it was on—hair came out by the handful, some bleached and some unbleached.

    1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 23

18. colloquialNot using alcohol, drugs, etc.First known use 20th c.

    For all the boredom the straight life brings, it's not too bad.

    1989, Gus Van Sant, Drugstore Cowboy

    1 more example

    ‘Alex's dad used a lot of drugs. He's been straight for years now, but it took a long time for him to be able to deal with his feelings.’

    2001, Ruella Frank, Body of Evidence, page 28

    Synonyms: straightedge

19. fashionNot plus size; thin.

    shopping at a straight-sized store

    1 more example

    The shirts only come in straight sizes, not in plus sizes.

20. rarelifestyleStrait; narrow.

    Egypt is a long country, but it is straight, that is to say, narrow.

    c. 1360, Sir John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

    4 more examples

    that the old streets are unfit for the present frequency of Coaches; and that the passage of Ludgate is a throat too straight for the body.

    1814, John Britton, Edward Wedlake Brayley, Thomas Hood, The Beauties of England and Wales

    "Enter ye into the straight gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many go in thereat; because straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

    1893, The Pulpit: A Magazine of Sermons - Volume 8, page 322

    Family or Gentile expansion: “Behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us.”

    1894, American Anthropologist, page 153

    One is a wide gate and broad way seeker, while the other is the straight gate and narrow way seeker.

    2013, Dr. Apostle Emmanuel Adebiyi, Purposes of the Cross

21. obsoleteStretched out; fully extended.First known use 15th–16th c.
22. slangThorough; utter; unqualified.

    A real pimp is a gentleman, but these are pimps in gorilla suits. They hang around pimps, they have hoes on the track working for them, they may even look like pimps, but they are straight simps.

    2012, Pimpin' Ken, PIMPOLOGY: The 48 Laws of the Game, page 11

23. Of spirits: undiluted, unmixed; neat.First known use 19th c.

    Real cowboys know how to rope, ride a horse and drink whisky straight.

    2003, Ron Jordan, Considerations

    1 more example

    The Martini is still in belief, if not in fact, the centerpiece of a rite, and people who would not drink straight gin on the rocks will drink straight gin on the rocks if it is called a Martini.

    2003, Lowell Edmunds, Martini, Straight Up, page 94

24. historicalcommunicationsSent at a full rate for immediate delivery; being a fast telegram.

    “Was it a straight message?” Miss Jenny asked. The other said yes and she added: “Horace must have got rich, like the soldiers say all the Y.M.C.A. did. Well, if it has taught a man like Horace to make money, the war was a pretty good thing, after all.”

    1964 [1929], William Faulkner, Sartoris (The Collected Works of William Faulkner), London: Chatto & Windus, page 23

25. mathematicsConcerning the property allowing the parallel transport of vectors along a course that keeps tangent vectors remain as such throughout that course (a course which is straight, a straight curve, is a geodesic).
26. informalOK, all right, fine; in a good state or situation.

    Just making sure you're straight

    1 more example

    "Is something on your mind?" "Nah, I'm straight".

27. informalreciprocalOn good terms.

    We had a bit of a disagreement, but we're straight now.

comparative more straight · superlative most straight · alternative obsolete streight

1. Of a direction relative to the subject, precisely; as if following a direct line.

   Go straight back.

   1 more example

   The door will be straight ahead of you.

2. Directly; without pause, delay or detour.

   On arriving at work, he went straight to his office.

   3 more examples

   Tartarian theeues, That lie in ambuſh, waiting for a pray: What ſhould we doe but bid them battel ſtraight, And rid the world of thoſe deteſted troopes?

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii

   I know thy generous temper well; / Fling but the appearance of dishonour on it, / It straight takes fire, and mounts into a blaze.

   1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4

   "I've had just abart enough of you and your blinkin' game, Toady Joolby. Here, I'd sooner smash the bloody thing, straight, than be such a ruddy mug as to swallow any of your blahsted promises […]"

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

3. Continuously; without interruption or pause.

   He claims he can hold his breath for three minutes straight.

4. Of speech or information, without prevarication or holding back; directly; straightforwardly; plainly.

   "By ginger, Mudgy, you do go off the handle over nothing. I tell you straight, I was damned annoyed with you this afternoon, going pop like that at a man over nothing."

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC

plural straights · alternative obsolete streight

1. Something that is not crooked or bent such as a part of a road or track.

   After four grueling laps, the race had come down to a sprint. Into the straight, although my legs were burning, I called on them for more, and they responded. On my inside the maroon singlet came with me, until it was just the two of us heading for the line.

   2009, Robert Newton, Runner, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 191

   1 more example

   Seppi started the engine, then shifted first gear and sped away into second, then third and fourth gear. Frank heard the roar of the Porsche's engine further down the straight and the back short straight. He held a stopwatch in his hand, waiting for him to come up into the straight from the hairpin curve.

   2011, Gene W. Zepp, 24 Heures Du Mans, [S.l.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 19

2. card gamesFive cards in sequence.
3. colloquialA heterosexual.

   My friends call straights "heteros".

   Synonyms: hetero, breeder

4. slangA normal person; someone in mainstream society.

   You live with straights who tell you you was king / Jump when your momma tell you anything

   1971, John Lennon, “How Do You Sleep?”, in Imagine

   2 more examples

   Boys! Boys! You're scaring the straights, okay? Is there any way that we could do this tomorrow?

   1989, Ghostbusters II, spoken by Peter Venkman (Bill Murray)

   More importantly, Blows Against the Empire […] more than any other work revealed the split vision towards space exploration among many in the counter-culture: a romantic vision of the freedom offered by space that had been fostered by a lifetime of science fiction consumption, immersion in a technological society, the countercultural yearning for speed and “the road,” and, thanks to LSD and other hallucinogens, a unique preappreciation of space traveling not available to straights, versus the bland, oppressive vision of exploration offered by NASA, itself just one part of a larger destructive system that was devastating Earth and that could only offer further oppression in space, not liberation.

   2014, Matthew D. Tribbe, “Turning a Miracle into a Bummer”, in No Requiem for the Space Age, →ISBN, page 150

   Synonyms: basic bitch, bourgeois, L7, mainstreamer, mainstreamist, muggle, mundane, normal

5. slangA cigarette, particularly one containing tobacco instead of marijuana.First known use 20th c.

   A straight = a straighter = a straight cut, une cigarette en tabac de Virginie.]

   [1923, J[oseph] Manchon, Le slang : lexique de l'anglais familier et vulgaire : précédé d'une étude sur la pronunciation et la grammaire populaires, p. 296

   Synonyms: straighter

6. A chiropractor who relies solely on spinal adjustment, with no other treatments.

   Antonyms: mixer

7. A cat that has straight ears despite belonging to a breed that often has folded ears.

   2021, B. J. Deming, 25 More Facts About House Cats A hopeful sign of compromise is the growing popularity of Scottish Fold "straights" (cats like Maru, without droopy ears).

present singular third person straights · participle present straighting · participle past straighted · past straighted · alternative obsolete streight

1. transitiveTo straighten.

   One man draws out the wire , another straights it , a third cuts it , a fourth points it , a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head

   1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

plural Straights

1. A surname.