straits
    n 1: a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs [syn:
         pass, strait, straits]
    2: a difficult juncture; "a pretty pass"; "matters came to a
       head yesterday" [syn: pass, head, straits]

Strait \Strait\, n.; pl. Straits. [OE. straight, streit, OF.
   estreit, estroit. See Strait, a.]
   1. A narrow pass or passage.
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            He brought him through a darksome narrow strait
            To a broad gate all built of beaten gold. --Spenser.
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            Honor travels in a strait so narrow
            Where one but goes abreast.           --Shak.
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   2. Specifically: (Geog.) A (comparatively) narrow passageway
      connecting two large bodies of water; -- often in the
      plural; as, the strait, or straits, of Gibraltar; the
      straits of Magellan; the strait, or straits, of Mackinaw.
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            We steered directly through a large outlet which
            they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles
            broad.                                --De Foe.
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   3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]
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            A dark strait of barren land.         --Tennyson.
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   4. Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt;
      distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in
      the plural; as, reduced to great straits.
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            For I am in a strait betwixt two.     --Phil. i. 23.
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            Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate
            under any calamity or strait whatsoever. --South.
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            Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural
            infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that
            time in his thoughts.                 --Broome.
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