straighten

present singular third person straightens · participle present straightening · participle past straightened · past straightened

1. transitiveTo cause to become straight.

   [S]o / Do these upbear the little world below / Of Education,—Patience, Love, and Hope. / Methinks, I see them group'd in seemly show, / The straiten'd arms upraised, the palms aslope, / And robes that touching as adown they flow, / Distinctly blend, like snow emboss'd in snow.

   1830, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “[Sibylline Leaves.] Love, Hope, and Patience in Education.”, in The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge […], volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1880, →OCLC, page 334

2. intransitiveTo become straight.
3. transitiveTo put in order; to sort; to tidy up.

   straighten one's account

   2 more examples

   to straighten one's affairs

   Tuilagi and Ashton started in lively fashion, centre Tuilagi doing what he does best, straightening and bursting into the line, and Ashton always looking to leave his wing and get involved in the action.

   2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport

4. transitiveTo clarify a situation or concept to (an audience).
5. slangtransitiveTo bribe or corrupt.
6. intransitiveTo stand up, especially from a sitting position.
7. informaltransitiveTo make heterosexual.

   It has been said that to survive in this Wasp society, Blacks must straighten their hair, Jews must straighten their noses, and Gays must straighten themselves. But we will no longer tolerate being straightened. It is the doctors and the straight society who must change.

   1973 December 22, Satya, “It Is Not We Who Must Change”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 27, page 3

   1 more example

   It raises the prospect that pregnant women could one day be offered a treatment to reduce or eliminate the chance that their offspring will be homosexual. Experts say that, in theory, the "straightening" procedure on humans could be as simple as a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn on the skin like an anti-smoking nicotine patch.

   2006 December 31, Isabel Oakeshott, Chris Gourlay, “Science Told: Hands Off Gay Sheep”, in The Sunday Times