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Straighten   /strˈeɪtən/   Listen
Straighten

verb
(past & past part. straighted; pres. part. straighting)
1.
Straighten up or out; make straight.  Synonym: unbend.
2.
Make straight.  Synonym: straighten out.
3.
Get up from a sitting or slouching position.
4.
Put (things or places) in order.  Synonyms: clean up, neaten, square away, straighten out, tidy, tidy up.
5.
Straighten by unrolling.  Synonym: roll out.
6.
Make straight or straighter.  "Straighten hair"



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"Straighten" Quotes from Famous Books



... walkin' 'roun' in de yard, en he come out on de peazzer whar Marster wuz sunnin' hese'f and singin'. I wouldn' b'lieve it, suh, ef I ain' see it wid my two eyes; but Marster got up out'n he cheer, en straighten hese'f, en shuck han's wid Mars Fess, en look like he know all 'bout it. Dee sot dar, suh, en talk en laugh, en laugh en talk, tell bimeby I 'gun ter git skeerd on de accounts er bofe un um. Dee talk 'bout de war, en dee talk 'bout de Yankees, en dee talk politics right straight ...
— Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches • Joel Chandler Harris

... also dismounted from her camel, and though she was less tired than during the night, Stas spread for her a saddle-cloth in the shade on a level spot and told her to lie down, in order, as he said, that she might straighten out her little feet. The Arabs prepared their noon meal, which consisted of biscuits and dates, together with a gulp of water. The camels were not watered for they had drank during the night. The faces of Idris, Gebhr and the Bedouins were still dejected, and the stop was made in silence. Finally ...
— In Desert and Wilderness • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... desired to learn. Leaping from the davits of the boat-deck above, they plunged downward, their faces and shoulders bowed forward, looking at the water. And only at the last moment did they abruptly straighten up and enter the water ...
— The Night-Born • Jack London

... had to straighten him out with devil-killers," Hines answered. "He bubbed all the way back to Earth, alone, to see J. John about Charlie. I beamed him, there, before the Earth hid behind the sun. He was still pretty shaken up. Funny, too—Charlie's opportunity-laden Venus has turned out to be a bust, for ...
— The Planet Strappers • Raymond Zinke Gallun

... these matters simply that the student may avoid this "I Am God" pitfall which awaits the Candidate just as he has well started on the Path. It would not be such a serious matter if it were merely a question of faulty metaphysics, for that would straighten itself out in time. But it is far more serious than this, for the teaching inevitably leads to the accompanying teaching that all is Illusion or Maya, and that Life is but a dream—a false thing—a lie—a nightmare; that the journey along the Path ...
— A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga • Yogi Ramacharaka

... the looseness of the marriage tie in their old sinful lives, we found many strange complicated tangles, some of which it was impossible to straighten. To deal with some of them would have caused endless difficulty, without any possibility of improving matters. To refuse to interfere gave offence to some, who, I am afraid, were more pharisaical than wise. Here, for example, was one case. ...
— By Canoe and Dog-Train • Egerton Ryerson Young

... in the canon when the sun got too strong for him. He thought, after Dayton left him, that he should have given up the game then and there, if it had not been for some blasting he was to do in the morning. The holes were all drilled, and it would be a day's job to clear away the pieces and straighten things out at that point. He should hate to have another man go on with the job. They might cut him out with Dorothy,—that was sure to come, sooner or later,—but, by the Great Horn Spoon! they should not get ...
— Peak and Prairie - From a Colorado Sketch-book • Anna Fuller

... it was coolly pocketed by the principal agent, who claimed it as a set-off against alleged damages in connection with a concession he had near Samana. In the ten years of anarchy that followed in Santo Domingo no attempt was made to straighten out the matter. The bonds having gone into default in 1872 dropped lower and lower until they reached ...
— Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich

... on it," he told the clerk in the store. "But you tell the manager I'm going to work and that I'll be in in a month or so and straighten up." ...
— Martin Eden • Jack London

... vaguely wondering how Pollyanna could possibly have known her—and wanted her. "You—you did?" she repeated, trying to straighten her hat. ...
— Pollyanna • Eleanor H. Porter

... face in her hands. At last she crept into bed. Mandy, coming in to straighten the room, was told to lower ...
— The Trumpeter Swan • Temple Bailey

... double-cross me, and git away with the plane and leave me there. It got my goat—I'll say it did—that desert stuff. So I hid the gas, so you couldn't go off and leave me. But that's behind us. You can give me a chance now to straighten up, and I can put you in the way to make big money. You think it over, bo. They's no great hurry, and we can make a flight now and see how she stacks up. Be a sport—go fill up the tank and ...
— The Thunder Bird • B. M. Bower

... race—drinking yourself stupid like a good Christian. I've got a thousand on the Titan, and if I'm to pay it I want to know why. You've got the heaviest risk and the brain to fight for it—you've got to do it. Go home, straighten up, and attend to this. We'll watch Rowland till you ...
— The Wreck of the Titan - or, Futility • Morgan Robertson

... to be having ..." said Mrs. Flanders, and paused, for she was cutting out a dress and had to straighten the pattern, "... ...
— Jacob's Room • Virginia Woolf

... parentheses] Close up; no space needed. / / Badly spaced; space more evenly. [Breve] Quad shows between the words; shove down. wf Wrong font. tr Transpose. | Carry to the left. || Lower. | | Elevate. // Straighten crooked line. lead Add lead between the lines. delta lead Take out lead. (?) Query: Is ...
— News Writing - The Gathering , Handling and Writing of News Stories • M. Lyle Spencer

... member emitted sounds equal to those of a trumpet in intensity, he could yet, with his accompanying air of guileless dignity, evoke the waiter's undivided respect—so much so that, whenever the sounds of the nose reached that menial's ears, he would shake back his locks, straighten himself into a posture of marked solicitude, and inquire afresh, with head slightly inclined, whether the gentleman happened to require anything further. After dinner the guest consumed a cup of coffee, ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... meekly to straighten up his desk, and Colonel Fortescue, coming in later to glance over the evening newspaper, found McGillicuddy gazing meditatively at the Articles of War, lying in ...
— Betty at Fort Blizzard • Molly Elliot Seawell

... laughing until her cushion slipped from under her head. She half rose to straighten it, and at that instant she caught a glimpse of her face in the center silvered panel of the Venetian mirror. The cry of horror that broke from her at that instant seemed part of her laugh. It would not have occurred to anyone who might have heard ...
— Phyllis of Philistia • Frank Frankfort Moore

... the clever, and they cram you with remedies without, troubling about the consequences. We are not so clever, not we! We are not savants, coxcombs, fops! We are practitioners; we cure people, and we should not dream of operating on anyone who is in perfect health. Straighten club-feet! As if one could straighten club-feet! It is as if one wished, for example, to ...
— Madame Bovary • Gustave Flaubert

... After much discussion and prayer, it was settled. There was no chance to go to their old station, even for a visit. Soon they were far away, among strangers, living in two rented rooms, and trying to straighten out a very difficult church situation, the like of which ...
— Have We No Rights? - A frank discussion of the "rights" of missionaries • Mabel Williamson

... Wood.—If it is wished to bend a rod of wood, or to straighten it if originally crooked, it must be steamed, or at least be submitted to hot water. Thus a rod of green wood may be passed through the ashes of a smouldering fire and, when hot, bent and shaped with the hand; but if the wood be dry it must first be thoroughly soaked ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... pursuit to watch the completion of the dive, and saw his hostess, a few feet above the water, bend her head forward, straighten out her arms and lock the hands to form the arch before her head, and, so shifting the balance of her body, change it from the horizontal to the ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London

... no door is open to me." Or: "Even if the door were open, why should I enter immediately?" Or: "What is the use of any hasty hypotheses? It might quite well be in good taste to make no hypotheses at all. Are you absolutely obliged to straighten at once what is crooked? to stuff every hole with some kind of oakum? Is there not time enough for that? Has not the time leisure? Oh, ye demons, can ye not at all WAIT? The uncertain also has its charms, the Sphinx, too, is a Circe, ...
— Beyond Good and Evil • Friedrich Nietzsche

... they kept at a distance regrettable from the hunter's standpoint. Several times I saw Captain Nemo stop and take aim with his rifle; then, after sighting down its barrel for a few seconds, he would straighten up and ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne

... few feet away from her, hitched his shoulders to straighten out the silver jacket, and lit a cigarette. "A little while after Bad News Quillan turned up just now," he went on, "a few things occurred to me. One of them was that a couple of years ago you and he were operating around Beldon at about the same time. I thought, well, maybe ...
— Lion Loose • James H. Schmitz

... battling, he missed his footing and fell, twisting his ankle, on the side of the embankment. He rose with an effort and put his foot to the ground, but a sharp pain obliged him to lean against the trunk of a neighboring ash-tree. His foot felt as heavy as lead, and every time he tried to straighten it his sufferings were intolerable. All he could do was to drag himself along from one tree to another until he ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... failed to satisfy the country in regard to financial questions. There had been an annual deficit, and the distress of both the agricultural and manufacturing classes was alarming. The new premier proceeded with caution in the adoption of measures to relieve the burdens of the people and straighten out the finances, which were in great disorder. His first measure had reference to the corn laws, for the price of food in England was greater than in other European countries. He finally proposed to the assembled Parliament, in 1842, to make an essential alteration in the duties; and instead of ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume X • John Lord

... are a million or so out one side or the other. The figures'll straighten that up. But I'm that curious I'm just itching ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London

... are too heavy for me to draw,' said Niels; 'if you stoop a little you can quite well come in here.' The first giant accordingly bent down and entered in a stooping posture, but before he had time to straighten his back again Niels made a sweep with the sword, and oft went the giant's head. To push the body aside as it fell was quite easy for Niels, so strong had the wine made him, and the second giant as he entered ...
— The Crimson Fairy Book • Various

... President and his views were not very different from those of Mr. Bryan. I asked the President to permit me to see Sir William Tyrrell and talk to him frankly and to attempt to straighten the tangle out. He gave me ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume I • Burton J. Hendrick

... at the attitude of the other. "Say, straighten out, Steve. Push those feet down under the blankets. You're a big man up against disaster most times. Well, don't forget it. You're up against disaster now. Sit back, boy, and get a grip on yourself. It's the only way. I've got to tell you the whole rotten story, and ...
— The Heart of Unaga • Ridgwell Cullum

... blooms. If a plant is ripening seed, some strength goes to that; if bursting into many blooms, some goes to each of them; if it is trying to hold up against blustering winds, or to thrive on exhausted ground, or to straighten out cramped and clogged roots, these struggles also demand strength. Moral: Plant carefully, support your tall plants, keep all your plants in easy circumstances, don't put them to the trouble of ripening seed (unless you specially want it). To this ...
— Last Words - A Final Collection of Stories • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... they do not know what to begin first. Having chosen the most important task, attack that, and when you have once laid hold of the plough, drive straight ahead, not allowing the sight of another furrow, which is not just straight, to induce you to stop midway to straighten it before you have finished the one upon which your energies should now be bent. Too many women are mere potterers, not earnest laborers. They begin to make a bed, and stop to brush up some dust that has collected under ...
— The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) • Marion Harland

... the last crumbs of her pride. She tried to straighten, to smile with her old bravado. What was that story she ...
— One Basket • Edna Ferber

... out of the window watched with simple pleasure the efforts of the amateur sexton. Mr. Benn was digging like one possessed, only pausing at intervals to straighten his back and to cast a fearsome glance around him. The only thing that marred her pleasure was the behaviour of Mr. Travers, who was struggling for a place with all the fervour of a citizen at ...
— Captains All and Others • W.W. Jacobs

... for you to straighten yourself! What's the good of being a man, a male animal? And however that may be, is it possible, is it permissible, to reduce a personal, so to speak, fact to a general law, ...
— A House of Gentlefolk • Ivan Turgenev

... imaginable. I'll climb down with a rope around me, so that in case I slip anywhere you can straighten me up. I promise ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks • Frank Gee Patchin

... the first line say: "Here's a beck and here's a boo," as they suit the action to the word. As they do so, they also drop hands and each makes a courtesy, with hands at the hips for the "beck," and straighten up and make a deep bow forward for the "boo"; assuming an upright attitude, then, and bending the head sideways to the right for "Here's a side," and to the left for "Here's ...
— Entertainments for Home, Church and School • Frederica Seeger

... and a piece of wood or shell was inserted to keep the aperture open. Among the Koniags, an Esquimau people of Alaska, a girl at puberty was placed in a small hut in which she had to remain on her hands and feet for six months; then the hut was enlarged a little so as to allow her to straighten her back, but in this posture she had to remain for six months more. All this time she was regarded as an unclean being with whom no one might ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... turn now, boys!" cried Tucket. And they slipped from the rigging, impatient to leap into the boats, and be put ashore. "I tell ye, won't it feel good to straighten out a fellow's legs once, ...
— The Drummer Boy • John Trowbridge

... underground again and began to descend through another darker and narrower tunnel. In the upper one there had been one or two roofless stretches where one could straighten one's back and breathe; but here we were in pitch blackness, and saved from breaking our necks only by the gleam of the pocket-light which the young lieutenant who led the party shed on our path. ...
— Fighting France - From Dunkerque to Belport • Edith Wharton

... what one factory owner in the South said, not knowin' he was talkin' to a member o' the child-labor commission? He said 'A kid three year old can soon learn to straighten out tobacco leaves for wrappers, and a little worker of four is good ...
— The Boy With the U.S. Census • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... gone wrong," he wrote. "You have got to come down here and straighten it out. I can plainly see that Mrs. Fairbanks is at the bottom of it, but just what she is at I cannot discover. Helen I do not now see much. The changes in our life, you see, have been very great. ...
— The Prospector - A Tale of the Crow's Nest Pass • Ralph Connor

... I ain't sayin' it on that account. By the way, though, before I forget. I got a little account standin' with your good mother—for taffeta an' silk an' needles an' thread. Some cloth, too. My wife used 'em sewing. I'll straighten ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann

... Colonel Faversham made an attempt to rise, but to his annoyance a cry of pain escaped. Unable for the moment to straighten his knee, he remained at Bridget's feet, conscious of ...
— Enter Bridget • Thomas Cobb

... lying down, turn her on the side opposite to that on which the limb is missing, so that there may be more room for bringing the latter up. Even if a missing limb is reached, it is vain to attempt to bring it up during a labor pain. Wait until the pain has ceased and attempt to straighten out the limb before the next pain comes on. If the pains are violent and continuous, they may be checked by pinching the back or by putting a tight surcingle around the body in front of the udder. These failing, 1 ounce or 1-1/2 ounces of chloral hydrate in a quart ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... down at her naked stone feet. And as he sat there smoking, twirling his shooting-cap in his hands, without the least warning a horseman, advancing noiselessly across the turf, passed him, carbine on thigh, busby glittering with the silver skull and crossbones. Before he could straighten up another horseman passed, then another, then three, then six, then a dozen, all sitting with poised carbines, scarcely noticing him at all, the low, blazing sun glittering on the silver skulls and crossed thigh-bones, deep ...
— Lorraine - A romance • Robert W. Chambers

... at his side and the other girls grouped about them, that they started their journey to the "caciques," whoever they might be, "to have it over with," whatever that might mean. As they strode along in silence, Kirby did what he could to straighten out in his mind the many curious things which had happened since he sat testing his rope in the ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 • Various

... picture to Skinny I shut the Handbook because I wouldn't need it any more and I laid the two dollar bill down on the table in a hurry, because I wanted to straighten Skinny's belt and fix his collar right and make him look as good as I could. Anyway I laid an oar-lock on the bill so it wouldn't blow away. I've got two nickel-plated oar-locks that my patrol gave me on troop birthday, and I keep ...
— Roy Blakeley • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... "All right," and sat down in front of the fire, trying to straighten things out. My Dinky-Dunk was gone! He had glared at me, with hate in his eyes, as he sat in that buckboard. It's all over. He has no faith in me, his ...
— The Prairie Wife • Arthur Stringer

... for—no pain, no illness, no real age. But she had left him, she said, her lip trembling and her eyes brimming again. He reminded her of her pretty, dependent step-mother, of the two little half-brothers who were just waiting for Nancy to come and straighten everything out. ...
— Undertow • Kathleen Norris

... and tried to make her eat, but she pushed away the glass of milk he offered and begged him to let her be. So there was nothing for it but to make her as comfortable as he could, draw the table to her side, straighten the Navajo blanket and get another pillow from the bedroom. Tomorrow morning he would send in a doctor and on his way out stop at the office and leave a message for the chambermaid to look in on her ...
— Treasure and Trouble Therewith - A Tale of California • Geraldine Bonner

... and straighten as you go, replacing disarranged utensils, etc. Have plenty of hot water handy, placing in soak those articles which cannot be washed immediately. While preparing one meal do as much as possible toward getting the ...
— Armour's Monthly Cook Book, Volume 2, No. 12, October 1913 - A Monthly Magazine of Household Interest • Various

... he crossed the hall, but as he opened the breakfast-room door he contrived to straighten out his face into a semblance of urbanity. Though he could have enjoyed accelerating the passage of his visitor into the street, there were excellent commercial reasons why he should adopt a less strenuous means towards the end which he ...
— The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories • Arnold Bennett

... open. I have not been able to detect any motion in the stem traceable to contraction, though there is no stiffness in its bearing. When disturbed, the pinnules of the arms first contract, the arms straighten themselves out, and the whole gradually and slowly closes up. It was a very impressive sight for me to watch the movements of the creature, for it not only told of its own ways, but at the same time afforded a glimpse into ...
— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz

... the vender could demand payment for the damage she had swiftly estimated, and she thrust her hand toward the pair on the floor, saying, "Hand me over a dollar, and be quick about it! Ought to be more, seein's it'll take me half a day to straighten up and——" ...
— A Sunny Little Lass • Evelyn Raymond

... know what is on your mind, Milt. Maybe I can straighten this out. Gordon told me a little while ago that you wanted ...
— Security • Ernest M. Kenyon

... rounded her shoulders her cousin would call to her to be as erect as herself (Sylvie was rigid as a soldier presenting arms to his colonel); sometimes indeed the ill-natured old maid enforced the order by slaps on the back to make the girl straighten up. ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... Crimp this in your fingers and draw through your hand as you did the circles for the pinks; then, pinching it together to within one and a half inches of the edge, hold it in your left hand and flatten out the top, as in Fig. 245. See that the fulness is evenly distributed, and pull and straighten out the edges until you are ...
— Little Folks' Handy Book • Lina Beard

... to then had been fast, it was slow to what followed. It seemed impossible for two strong men with one lasso, and a giant with another, to straighten out that lion. He was all over the little space under the trees at once. The dust flew, the sticks snapped, the gravel pattered like shot against the cedars. Jones ploughed the ground flat on his stomach, holding on with one hand, with the other ...
— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey

... metal, he laid it on the anvil, and gave it five or six heavy blows to straighten it a little, before thrusting ...
— The Lighthouse • Robert Ballantyne

... of Jackson, wounded to death and unable to stand, was unshaken. Harry saw him suddenly straighten up, draw himself away from those who ...
— The Star of Gettysburg - A Story of Southern High Tide • Joseph A. Altsheler

... his shoulders. "Guess th' best way fer you ter straighten out all them things is to step indoors ...
— Kiddie the Scout • Robert Leighton

... more trouble with them. I put one o' Boneses' boys on a hoss an' hustled him up the valley fer help. The wimmen captives was bawlin'. I tol' 'em to straighten out their faces an' go with Jack an' his father down to Fort Stanwix. They were kind o' leg weary an' excited, but they hadn't been hurt yit. Another day er two would 'a' fixed 'em. Jack an' his father ...
— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller

... Witherspoon, is not that girl mad?" hoarsely cried Ferris. "I suppose that all the railroad people and our ranch men have gathered around her, and she has dozens of volunteer advisers. By God! I'll straighten her out when ...
— The Midnight Passenger • Richard Henry Savage

... laughed Mr. Perkins. "Fact is, Johnnie, you're way ahead as far as your mind is concerned. I'm mighty pleased about your reading. I certainly am, old fellow! And in no time you can get some blood into your cheeks, and cultivate some muscle, and straighten out your lungs. Once there was a boy who was in worse shape than you are, because he had the asthma, and could hardly breathe. And what do you suppose ...
— The Rich Little Poor Boy • Eleanor Gates

... it. But Dick will straighten things out—he's got a head for just that sort of thing." Tom took up a text book, glanced at it for a moment, and then threw it on the table. "No use, I can't study any more to-day. I'm going out on the campus. You come as ...
— The Rover Boys in Alaska - or Lost in the Fields of Ice • Arthur M. Winfield

... particularly fitted for in a somewhat delicate matter. Uncongenial as his task was, it was one that could not be left to Vane, who was even less to be trusted with the handling of such affairs; and Carroll had resolved, as he would have described it, to straighten out things. ...
— Vane of the Timberlands • Harold Bindloss

... surprising little experience, causing him to straighten up his lean yet shapely figure; while the burden of his years, and the long monotony of them, seemed strangely lifted off him. Then, with the air of courtly reserve—at once the joke and envy of the younger clerks, which had earned him the nickname of "the old Hidalgo"—he leaned ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet

... cry and should command an immediate investigation as to the possible cause. It takes but a moment to discover a wet diaper; to run the hand up the back under the clothes; to sprinkle with talcum if perspiring; to straighten out the wrinkled clothing; to find the unfastened pin that pricks; or to loosen the tight band. Acquire the art of learning to perform these simple tasks easily, and any or all of these services should be rendered without taking the ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

... her own name, Clare took her eyes from Farvel and turned them upon Mrs. Milo—turned them slowly, as a sick person might—with effort, and an almost feeble lifting of the head. Her look once focused, she began, little by little, to straighten, to stand more firmly on her feet; she even reached to flatten the starched collar, which had upreared ...
— Apron-Strings • Eleanor Gates

... ill-bred to stoop too close to one's porringer or the meat. It suffices to bend a little when conveying a soaked morsel to one's mouth, in order to avoid soiling oneself, then straighten up again. (25.) Do not clean your hands on a loaf; if very greasy you might, it would seem, partly clean them on a bit of bread you are about to eat, then on your napkin, so as not to soil the latter too much: this will rarely happen if you know how to use spoon and fork in the ...
— George Washington's Rules of Civility - Traced to their Sources and Restored by Moncure D. Conway • Moncure D. Conway

... started out, Dolores dropped the dress she was holding, to join them. Curiosity overcame the desire to straighten out ...
— Wanted—7 Fearless Engineers! • Warner Van Lorne

... my superior in gifts and intellect, and among them the foremost was our friend Philippus. Thus it came about, noble Paula, that the old man and the youth in his prime were fellow-students; but to this day the senior gladly bows down to his young brother in learning and feeling. To straighten, to comfort, and to heal: this is the aim of his life too. And even I, an old man, who started long before Philippus on the same career, often long to call myself ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... Braying an ordinary fool in a mortar is an unpromising job; but an extraordinary official leatherhead, PLUS thin-skinned conscience, and religious scruples, requires the upper and nether mill stone. You know, Churchill, it is tough work to straighten ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... important matters in a pleasurable poem than in a treatise on ethics. Again, there are historians who allege that English literature must include not simply the works of Britain but everything written in the English language. There are other objections; but to straighten them all out is to be long in starting, and there is a pleasant journey ahead of us. Chaucer had literature in mind when ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long

... of it, as she had never had much opportunity of going to school and was far behind the girls of her own age. Edna and Dorothy were her staunch defenders, however and when matters came to a too difficult pass the older girls were appealed to and could always straighten out whatever was wrong. Frank and Charlie, Edna's brothers, were almost too large for Uncle Justus' school, where only little fellows went, so they went elsewhere to the school which Roger and Steve ...
— A Dear Little Girl at School • Amy E. Blanchard

... good time Ranjoor Singh ran out and helped with that long stick of his to straighten out the mess; then in thirty seconds the wheels were unlocked again and the carts moving in a hurry to the roadside. The advance-guard moved on, and Kirby followed. Then, troop by troop, the whole of Outram's Own rode by, and the German began to wonder. It ...
— Winds of the World • Talbot Mundy

... for some moments. He was trying to straighten out the threads of light which his twisted mind perceived. Finally he shook his head. And when he spoke his words showed only too plainly how little he was interested in the other's meaning, and how much ...
— The One-Way Trail - A story of the cattle country • Ridgwell Cullum

... stop, believe me!" was Phil's grim comment, as he managed to straighten up and look ahead. "Stuffed mackerel! what did we try to ...
— Dave Porter At Bear Camp - The Wild Man of Mirror Lake • Edward Stratemeyer

... interposed Dr. Shrapnel, after dashing a hand to straighten his forelock; but Cecil vehemently entreated him to control ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... to himself as he leaned against a tree near the building. "I ought to have remembered the church before.—I've set up their notices many a time; they always say 'Everybody welcome.' Christians won't let me starve—they'll help me earn something to eat.—I'm not a beggar—not me," and he tried to straighten his tired figure. "All I want is ...
— That Printer of Udell's • Harold Bell Wright

... pack for her. Don't trouble about anything. I'll see that it is all right. You'll let me help you, dear, won't you?" Margot put up a tender hand, to straighten the cap on the poor, dishevelled head; and something in the simple, daughterly action seemed to reach the poor woman's heart, and bring with it the first touch of calmness. She sat up and looked blankly ...
— Big Game - A Story for Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... was safely down, St. Vincent let the revolver fall from his hand, and with a slight audible sigh sank nervelessly upon a stool. He tried to straighten himself, but instead dropped down upon the table and buried his face in his palsied hands. Matt drew on his mittens, looking down upon him pityingly the while, and went out, closing the door ...
— A Daughter of the Snows • Jack London

... had time to wither, spread it out flat on a sheet of paper and spread another sheet over it, taking care to straighten the leaves and flower out. Blotting-paper is preferable, but any soft paper that will absorb moisture will ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Nature Study • Ontario Ministry of Education

... am aiming at. Let us suppose that Miss Melhuish never, in her own mind, abandoned the hope that some day the tangle would straighten itself. Women are constituted that way. If her husband is now dead, and she became free, she might wish to renew the old ties, but, being proud, would want to ascertain first whether or not any other woman had come into ...
— The Postmaster's Daughter • Louis Tracy

... is nicest," said Allie. "The boys aren't you, any more than Charlie is Howard. I like them both; but I need you to straighten out things sometimes." ...
— In Blue Creek Canon • Anna Chapin Ray

... on leaden wings. There was a great hush in the old house, and the street itself was quiet. Once or twice Staff caught himself nodding; then he would straighten up, steel his will and spur his senses to attention, waiting, listening, straining to catch the sound of an approaching taxi. He seemed to hear every imaginable night noise but that: the crash and whine of trolleys, the footsteps of a scattered handful of belated pedestrians, ...
— The Bandbox • Louis Joseph Vance

... Keith rapidly made himself a position. He was leading counsel for Dick Blatchford and one or two others. His job was to know all the rules of the game so well that there were no comebacks; to set the machinery in motion by which the contracts were procured; and to straighten out any irregularities that might arise afterward. His position was almost academic. The matters he fought and decided were so detached from actuality, as far as he was concerned, that they might have been hypothetical cases. When Dick wanted anything ...
— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White

... to keep in your room, sir, when there is an outbreak like the one under discussion, and allow me to straighten matters out. If you had done so, I might be able to get at the bottom of this affair and discover the guilty jokers; as it is, you and your associates complicated matters so that I do not seem able to do ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish

... strain, may be found in the machines used for beveling the edges of boiler plate. Not so particularly strange that the first one might have, like Topsy, "growed," but strange because each builder copies the original. You will remember it, a complete machine set upon a stone foundation, to straighten and hold a plate, and another complete machine set down by the side of it and bolted to the same stone to plane off the edge; a lot of wasted material and a lot of wasted genius, it always seems to me. Going around Robin Hood's barn ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 643, April 28, 1888 • Various

... directions. The oak leaves are thick under the bare trees, and give a strong and delicious perfume. Inside the wards everything is gloomy. Death is there. As I enter'd, I was confronted by it the first thing; a corpse of a poor soldier, just dead, of typhoid fever. The attendants had just straighten'd the limbs, put coppers on the eyes, and were ...
— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman

... little confused. It was necessary to take an account of stock, and straighten it out. The Fosters knew it, they felt it, they realized that it was imperative; but they also knew that to do it properly and perfectly the task must be carried to a finish without a break when once it was begun. A ten-hours' job; and where could ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... "keep as honest as that and peg away. You'll find your prayers straighten themselves out ...
— Brother Copas • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... our Government negotiated a treaty under which we are to try to help the Dominican people to straighten out their finances. This treaty is pending before the Senate. In the meantime a temporary arrangement has been made which will last until the Senate has had time to take action upon the treaty. Under this arrangement the Dominican Government has appointed Americans to all the important positions ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... old story, the story of every war that England had gone into and "muddled through" somehow; but with two differences. Her soldiers had never had to fight an enemy in the skies before, and—there was no time now to straighten out the muddle, even if every able-bodied man in the United Kingdom had been trained ...
— The World Peril of 1910 • George Griffith

... laughed grimly. "I expect, ma'am, that things look pretty bad for me. They always do when someone's tryin' to make 'em. I reckon there ain't any use of tryin' to straighten it out now—you won't listen. But I'm tellin' you this: When everything comes out you'll see that I ...
— The Two-Gun Man • Charles Alden Seltzer

... leader, with the sanction and backing of the Hierarchy, will be the binding link between the various helping factors and will prevent immigration becoming "nobody's business" just because "it is everybody's business." This method of an organized and responsible unity will alone straighten out our line of defence from Halifax to Vancouver, and pinch out the various salients of enemy forces that are always and ...
— Catholic Problems in Western Canada • George Thomas Daly

... vanished, a great foamless wave rolled forward and passed her under way, and in this instant she leaned far over on her side, shied from the bar and fled square away from the danger like a frightened thing—and the pilot was lucky if he managed to "straighten her up" before she drove her nose into the opposite bank; sometimes she approached a solid wall of tall trees as if she meant to break through it, but all of a sudden a little crack would open just enough to admit her, and away she would go plowing through the "chute" ...
— The Gilded Age, Complete • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

... had rushed forward to succour a wounded trooper when a shell crashed near them, and he fell to the ground. And then he know what the great thing was the New Year had promised him. For death was going to straighten out matters—John was going beyond. Well, he had never been rebellious, and he knew now that light had come. But the sky above seemed to be darkening curiously, and the terrible noise to be growing dim, when he was conscious that a man was crawling towards him, dragging ...
— The Price of Things • Elinor Glyn

... Horse of Pleasure, these following Lessons are to be learnt. As first to Bound aloft, to do which: Trot him some sixteen yards, then stop, and make him twice advance; then straighten your Bridle-hand; then clap briskly both your Spurs even together to him, and he will rise, tho' it may at first amaze him; if he does it, cherish him, and repeat it often ...
— The School of Recreation (1696 edition) • Robert Howlett

... affirmative, and there are any vacancies, he is employed at once, though he may not know how to lead a mule by the head properly. This is not alone the case with teamsters. I have known wagon-masters who really did not know how to straighten out a six-mule team, or, indeed, put the harness on them properly. And yet the wagon-master has almost complete power over the train. It will be readily seen from this, how much valuable property may be destroyed by placing incompetent men in such places. Wagon-masters, ...
— The Mule - A Treatise On The Breeding, Training, - And Uses To Which He May Be Put • Harvey Riley

... you, the effect of the meeting of our eyes was astonishing. I'm thinking there wasn't a muscle in his body that did not pull at him to straighten him up, to take off his hat, to bend him a little backward, as if he had thrust his ...
— The Blue Wall - A Story of Strangeness and Struggle • Richard Washburn Child

... marble, button, pebble, bead, the greatest care must be exercised. Try to make the object fall out. To effect this, turn the child's head downward with the injured ear toward the floor. Then pull the lobe of the ear outward and backward so as to straighten the canal. A teaspoonful of olive oil poured into the ear will aid in its expulsion. If after the oil is poured in, the head is suddenly turned as above described the object will fall out. A very effective way to remove a hard object is to take a small camel's hair brush and coat the ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague

... he, "whether you've slept or not, you've got to come right over to parson's with me, and straighten him out. He's all balled up. You are as bad as the rest of us. You think we don't know enough to refuse a clock like a comic valentine, and you think we don't prize that old bell. How are we going to prize things if nobody tells us anything about them? And here's the town going to pieces over a ...
— Tiverton Tales • Alice Brown

... he said, "you fool! The worst of it is done. Why could you not say at first there was enough for two? Two!" he repeated, "ay, and for two hundred! But come away from here, where we may be observed; and, for the love of wisdom, straighten out your hat and brush your clothes. You could not travel two steps the figure of fun you ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various

... us, now you 'ave come over," said Mrs. Larkins, with corroborating cries from Minnie. "'Ave a bit of a walk with the gals, and then come back to supper. You might all go and meet Annie while I straighten up, ...
— The History of Mr. Polly • H. G. Wells

... "what's wrong with you? You were angry that they came. Now you're angry at what they say. I don't understand. Tell me the reason of it. If there's something that I don't know let me hear it, and I'll try and straighten things out." ...
— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner

... "Now straighten it, and tear a piece off your doublet and wrap it round and round one end, so that you can hold it. Now just try it on ...
— The Lion of Saint Mark - A Story of Venice in the Fourteenth Century • G. A. Henty

... amiably disposed to take his time as was Pete himself, shied suddenly. Through habit, Pete jabbed him with the spur, to straighten him back in the road again. Pete had barely time to mutter an audible "I thought so!" when Blue Smoke humped himself. Pete slackened to the first wild lunge, grabbed off his hat and swung it as Blue Smoke ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs

... David to help her straighten out the garden, which had been trampled by the repair men; so he could not go to see the Phoenix until after lunch. But when that was finished, he rushed up the mountainside as fast as he could, wondering all the way what he and the Phoenix ...
— David and the Phoenix • Edward Ormondroyd

... pistols, which he knew how to use). At once Levi Coffin received a call from the editor for advice, as he was his informant. During this interview, Catherine came into our room, saying, "Laura, they are in a tangle with that New Orleans slave-holder, and they want thee to help straighten it." Going in, I was introduced to the editor, and main proprietor of the Commercial, and they ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland

... the thin shoulders straighten themselves under the folds of chinchilla! The cloak became symbolic, a ...
— Lady Rose's Daughter • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... sugar and tea. Servants are always quarreling and the only way to do is to keep out of their lies about each other and let them fight it out themselves. You never can have any idea of who's telling the truth if you butt in and try to straighten it, and the Lord knows that Ellen's too good a cook and too much needed in this family until the new member arrives safely, to hurt her feelings with investigating any of Mrs. O'Hern's yarns. Just you refuse ...
— The Squirrel-Cage • Dorothy Canfield

... you have selected will presently be packed by the senior porter and sent to you. Returning thence to his particular place, he lays hands on a folded piece of gingham, and gripping the corners of the folds in his hands, begins to straighten them punctiliously. Near him is an apprentice, apprenticed to the same high calling of draper's assistant, a ruddy, red-haired lad in a very short tailless black coat and a very high collar, who is deliberately unfolding and refolding some patterns of cretonne. ...
— The Wheels of Chance - A Bicycling Idyll • H. G. Wells

... perpetual, resembling the sensation caused by ravenous hunger; but food, though I ate voraciously, would not relieve me. I also felt a sinking in the stomach, and such a pain in the back that I could not straighten myself up. A dull, constant, aching pain took possession of the calves of my legs, and there was a continual jerking motion of the nerves from head to foot. My head ached, my intellect was terribly weakened and confused, and I could not think, talk, ...
— The Opium Habit • Horace B. Day

... to the trees about us, and when possible succour them in distress, straighten the bent sapling, remove the parasitic lichen, and give them the best chance for a long, patient, ...
— The Log of the Sun - A Chronicle of Nature's Year • William Beebe

... "To straighten out the entangled thread this person would plead guilty to the act—in a lesser capacity and against his untrammelled will—of rejoicing musically on a day set apart for universal woe: a crime aimed directly at the sacred ...
— Kai Lung's Golden Hours • Ernest Bramah

... play shows no falling in dramatic power; it was imitated by Racine and Schiller. The figures are intensely human, the conflict of duties firmly outlined, the pathos sincere and true, there is no divine appearance to straighten out a tangled plot. Thus Euripides' career ends as it began, with a story of a ...
— Authors of Greece • T. W. Lumb



Words linked to "Straighten" :   arrange, draw up, comb, change posture, bend, straighten up, change, rise up, extend, alter, channelise, disentangle, modify, clean, make up, untwist, houseclean, pull up, unweave, unwind, order, rear, clean house, make, set up, channelize, untwine



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