Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Straighten   Listen
verb
Straighten  v. t.  (past & past part. straighted; pres. part. straighting)  
1.
To make straight; to reduce from a crooked to a straight form.
2.
To make right or correct; to reduce to order; as, to straighten one's affairs; to straighten an account.
To straighten one's face, to cease laughing or smiling, etc., and compose one's features.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Straighten" Quotes from Famous Books



... stuff in him and hadn't forgotten his early training, either, for when he came to the "turn," his head and tail came up, his eyes brightened, and, with a playful movement of his huge body, without the least hint from the deacon, he swung himself and the cumbrous old sleigh into line and began to straighten himself for ...
— How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's - And Other Stories • W. H. H. Murray

... 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, and then, seating himself upon the sofa, with, behind ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

... first words that came into his head, trying to keep them distracted as long as possible. He must appear to be only going across the room, that was the feeling he must generate. There was even time to stop for a second and straighten his rumpled clothing and brush the sweat from his eyes. Talking easily, walking slowly towards the hall that led out of ...
— Planet of the Damned • Harry Harrison

... seized his wand, Transformed to lawn what late was fairy-land; And marred, with impious hand, each sweet design Of Stephen Duck, and good Queen Caroline. Haste, bid yon livelong terrace re-ascend, Replace each vista, straighten every bend; Shut out the Thames; shall that ignoble thing Approach the presence of great Ocean's king? No! let barbaric glories feast his eyes, August pagodas round his palace rise, And finished Richmond open to his ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... be cleared for Weald from any other planet in the galaxy until there has been a health inspection! Things have pretty well gone to pot so far as the Med Service in this sector is concerned, but it's being straightened up. I'm helping straighten it! I give you twenty minutes to clear this! Then I am coming in, and if I'm not landed a quarantine goes on! Tell ...
— This World Is Taboo • Murray Leinster

... he had said, "Well, when it does, it can call on me." And to-day the country did want men who could shoot and ride, and he had flown into the foothills to nurse a broken heart. . . . Broken hearts can fight as well as whole ones. Better, perhaps, because they don't care. He felt his frame straighten as this thought sank home. He could be of some use yet. At any rate, there was ...
— The Cow Puncher • Robert J. C. Stead

... you out, put you in training, "Pet," Or crack you up as the Coming Young Copt. (Straighten up, boy! Such corkscrewing and craning, "Pet," Never a rib-roasting wunner in-popt.) No, you 're a legacy! Would not deceive you, "Pet," You are a stick, and have cost a good bit. Still we have charge of, and don't mean to leave you, "Pet," Till ...
— Punch, Or the London Charivari, Volume 101, November 21, 1891 • Various

... sanctify the new moon, one should straighten his feet (as at the Shemonah-esreh) and give one glance at the moon before he begins to repeat the ritual blessing, and having commenced it he should not look at her at all. Thus should he begin—'In the united name of the Holy and Blessed One and His Shechinah, through that Hidden and ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various

... hand to the shoulder; straighten and hold the arm horizontally, thrusting it in the direction ...
— The Plattsburg Manual - A Handbook for Military Training • O.O. Ellis and E.B. Garey

... a mind to take you down to Wall Street with me next week," said Mr. Muir. "Perhaps you can straighten out ...
— A Young Girl's Wooing • E. P. Roe

... that Sir Julian, with a whisper in the King's ear, could send him to the Tower. So at the point of Sir Julian's sword—metaphorically—he was forced to go to the King and straighten matters as best he could. This the great Duke did, with the most exquisite urbanity. He knew well the King's humour, and the most propitious moment in it, and propinquity played him fair, and there vibrated in his Majesty's ear the dulcet tones ...
— Mistress Penwick • Dutton Payne

... 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

... down. He felt a sleepy but strong desire to straighten things out and have a perfect ...
— Maggie: A Girl of the Streets • Stephen Crane

... the age of six, the bones naturally tend to straighten if the child is kept off its feet. After this age, ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... all foolish, and wrong, and just terrible," she broke in impulsively. Then she became calmly thoughtful, and her even brows drew together in an effort to straighten out the things she wanted to say. She shook her head. "I'm sure he can be handled," she went on deliberately. "Oh, yes. In spite of the ...
— The Man in the Twilight • Ridgwell Cullum

... relative. 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 a crooked ramrod." ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... straighten up their cabin, Clayton and his wife simultaneously noticed the corner of a piece of paper protruding from beneath the door of their quarters. As Clayton stooped to reach for it he was amazed to see it move further into the room, and ...
— Tarzan of the Apes • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... girl, I want to be on very peculiar terms with you. I want to straighten out everything. You'll be sort of struck, but I'll be bound to tell you I'm your father. ...
— Tales of the Five Towns • Arnold Bennett

... whirl. I couldn't tell you why. It was no particular thing that was said—it seemed to be more the things that I thought of while something else was being talked about—but the whole experience made a most tremendous impression upon me. I've tried to straighten it out in my own mind, but I can make nothing of it. That is what disturbs me, Celia. No man has ever confused me in this silly fashion before. Nothing could be more idiotic. I'm supposed to hold my own in conversation with people of—well, with people of a certain intellectual rank,—but ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... down by the loom and continued her work, while the young ranchero was allowed to kneel upon the petate beside her, and converse at will. There was no objection to his occasionally assisting her to straighten out the woof or untwist a fouled thread; and, on these occasions, their fingers frequently met, and seemed to remain longer in contact than was necessary for ...
— The White Chief - A Legend of Northern Mexico • Mayne Reid

... is about it," said the sick man, solemnly, with a frail effort to straighten himself, to which his sunken chest would not respond, "is this: no man ever did figure that out for himself. A man sees folks die, and as far as his senses go, they don't live again. But somehow he knows they do; and his knowledge comes from somewhere ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... I did well to write to you. Your arrival was all that was needed to straighten everything out. And yet," the good man would add by force of habit, "and yet ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... get-away," he replied with assumed lightness. "Before dawn we must be out of Paris.... Two minutes, while I straighten this place up and leave it ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance

... should if their souls had gone where their money went. I tell you it's a sin and a shame, and I know it. I feel it. And there's a gentleman among 'em, and his little boy, and they must be taken out of that place, or treated better in it. I've made up my mind to that, and if the men of Sevenoaks don't straighten matters on that horrible old hill, then they're ...
— Sevenoaks • J. G. Holland

... It was a persecution impossible to imagine in any other setting, even the social simplicity of Lazy-Y found itself a trifle amused. For Jasper, the stately Jewish figure, would carry pails of water for Jane from the well to the kitchen, would help her in the vegetable garden, and to straighten out her recalcitrant stove-pipe; Betty would put on an apron a mile too large, to wash dishes and shell peas. She would sit on the kitchen table swinging her long, childlike legs and chatter amiably. Jasper talked, ...
— The Branding Iron • Katharine Newlin Burt

... about? Yes, that is my religious service. The children keep me busy. You don't know anything about it; if I bring them up properly—run, Pietje, and straighten out Simon. He's pinching his sister again; he always does it when ...
— Walter Pieterse - A Story of Holland • Multatuli

... swells. Peter poked his way up forward to the solitary lookout in the peak and glanced overside. Broad, phosphorescent swords broke smoothly with a rending, rushing gurgle over the steep cut-water. His eyes darted here and there over the void as his mind struggled to straighten out ...
— Peter the Brazen - A Mystery Story of Modern China • George F. Worts

... proceeding, sir, must be to straighten this poor leg," he said, soothingly. "We shall place the leg in a cradle, from the thigh downwards: but I won't trouble you with technical details. I doubt if we shall be justified in setting the leg to-night; we must reduce the swelling before we can venture upon any important step. A cooling ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... take you home as soon as you can walk. I can straighten this out. It shall not happen again. You forget I have a ...
— Joyce of the North Woods • Harriet T. Comstock

... five eastern bays it is of two tiers. The upper projects beyond the lower, and so widens the span between the north and south clerestory walls. It has been suggested that this was done in order to straighten the north wall, which in the twelfth century had been built so that it bent ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: Chichester (1901) - A Short History & Description Of Its Fabric With An Account Of The - Diocese And See • Hubert C. Corlette

... 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 a ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume I • Burton J. Hendrick

... as he was in a condition to take the field, won over divers cities which had revolted from him, and made an incursion into Attica, where he took Eleusis and Rhamnus and wasted the country thereabout. And that he might straighten the Athenians by cutting off all manner of provision, a vessel laden with corn bound thither falling into his hands, he ordered the master and the supercargo to be immediately hanged, thereby to strike a terror into others, that so they might not ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... to straighten you out," he wrote, kindly. "We never use 'you-all' in the singular. Not even the most ignorant do so. But, as you know," (Ah, that was mercifully said!) "there are some peculiar, almost unexplainable, ...
— American Adventures - A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' • Julian Street

... however, I ceased to straighten out these stories of Uncle Ephraim, for I was gradually arriving at the conviction that my little colored damsel was by no means so simple and unsophisticated as she would have me believe, and that I was, after all, the one ...
— Wau-bun - The Early Day in the Northwest • Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie

... Muscamunge, and Metackwem: all these being vnder the iurisdiction of the king of Weopomeiok, called Okisco: From Muscamunge we enter into the Riuer,(92) and iurisdiction of Chawanook: There the Riuer beginneth to straighten vntil it come to Chawanook, and then groweth to be as narrow as the Thames betweene ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of - the English Nation. Vol. XIII. America. Part II. • Richard Hakluyt

... in it of interest that the temptation not to put it down until it is completed is strong within the mind of every person who begins to read it. As a historical record it is one of those volumes which will go further to straighten some disputed points than all of the arguments which could be advanced in good natured disputes which ...
— Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913 • John B. Foster

... explanation coming. Clark, or whatever his real name is, must suspect or know that his cousin, Dave Bissell, has told me something. Well, I certainly won't make any move about this strange affair until Clark has had an opportunity to straighten things out. In the meantime, I've got a good deal of personal business ...
— Ralph on the Overland Express - The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer • Allen Chapman

... whole knee with ointment of mallows, and oil of lilies, and a little eau-de-vie, and wrapped it in black wool with the grease left in it; and if we put under the knee a feather pillow doubled, little by little we shall straighten the leg. ...
— The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various

... because it pained me to straighten up; but from the time I laid my cane aside I straightened up, free from pain. Occasionally I have a slight pain in my back, but it is nothing to compare with what it ...
— Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 • Mary Baker Eddy

... cigar perform sundry involuntary dips and curves. He hoped that his face was under better control.] The marriage was a fizzle. I don't believe it lasted a month, really. Eyre had always been a chaser, though he did straighten out when he married Io. He really was crazy about her; but when she chucked him, he went back to his old hunting grounds. One can understand that. But Io; that's different. She's always played the game before. With Del, I don't ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... her musings, to go, she said, to rouse up the lazy maids and menservants, to straighten up the confusion of everything in the Chateau after ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby

... straighten it out," affirmed the second peasant, "so they had to bury him with his face turned round looking ...
— The Companions of Jehu • Alexandre Dumas

... down the room, striving with all her might to straighten out this abominable coil. Of all the pains to which poor human nature is liable, and not a few are self-inflicted, none is sharper than jealousy. It has been well described as the child of love and ...
— East of the Shadows • Mrs. Hubert Barclay

... I found Betty in the pineland. I thought she looked rather pale and dull...fretting about Frank no doubt. She brightened up when she saw me, evidently expecting that I had come to straighten matters out; but she pretended ...
— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... started off on a long ride in the launch, taking all the girls with them except Antha, who had a headache. Not long after they had gone Aunt Clara came out of Uncle Teddy's tent, which she had seized the opportunity to straighten up, and declared that her husband would forget his head if it weren't fastened on. She was carrying in her hand ...
— The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle - The Trail of the Seven Cedars • Hildegard G. Frey

... several times before. We like it very much. It's so distinguay and all that." Mrs. Swink's hands went to her head and she patted her transformation, but failed to straighten it. "I was born in Alabama, and Mr. Swink in Missouri, and Madeleine in Texas, so we feel kin to all Southerners and at home anywhere in the South; but I like this city best of any in it. Some day, I reckon, we'll live here." Her voice ...
— People Like That • Kate Langley Bosher

... The milkman came, his cans rattling; now and then he shouted to his horse, or whistled, or banged upon a gate. Then the sun came streaming into the room. The newsboys began to call—the young nurse woke up and began to straighten her hair. The elder nurse also opened her eyes, but did not stir; she seemed to challenge anyone to assert that she had ever ...
— Love's Pilgrimage • Upton Sinclair

... sheet, my able-bodied young friend, in a sheet," said Mitchell clapping him on the back. "Don't you know the 'Weigh the Baby' game? It may double her up a bit, but the redoubtable Janice will straighten her out again. Here's to the sheet, be it a wet sheet, a main sheet, or a sheet with your Aunt Mary ...
— The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary • Anne Warner

... British wit a dance—I'm so sorry," Nash replied benignly. "But I'm very sincere. And I have tried to straighten out things ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James

... to straight streets and measured avenues. It would not conform, and it never has conformed. And even more strenuously has its mental development defied the draughtsman's compass and triangle. Greenwich will not straighten its streets nor conventionalise its views. Its intellectual conclusions will always be just as unexpected as the squares and street angles that one stumbles on head first. Its habit of life will be just as weirdly individual ...
— Greenwich Village • Anna Alice Chapin

... Denny sat and tried to straighten it out in his brain—and failed entirely. It had grown very dark—too dark for him to make out the words upon it—when he reached into the pocket of his gray flannel shirt and drew out the card which he had found lying upon the kitchen floor that previous Saturday night, after he had ...
— Once to Every Man • Larry Evans

... your course, and are likely to go on a fresh tack. It isn't my habit to worry a man. I gave you a signal, and you didn't respond at first. Well, we have come within hail again; and now, don't you think that you might help to straighten this tangle, and try to arrange a reconciliation between ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... interrupted, gazing at him with an intense and painful stare, "this child here—Norma! I—I must straighten it all out now, Chris. Kate knows. Kate has all ...
— The Beloved Woman • Kathleen Norris

... Vandover would exclaim, throwing down the Announcement of Courses, "I can't make this thing out. It's all in a tangle. See here, I've got to fill up my hours some way or other; you straighten this thing out for me. Find me some nice little course, two hours a week, say, that comes late in the morning, a good hour after breakfast; something easy, all lectures, no outside reading, nice instructor and all that." And Geary would glance ...
— Vandover and the Brute • Frank Norris

... or five seconds. Mihul swore, scooping the Denton out of its holster. Trigger already had the Yool out, but the gun was unfamiliar; she hesitated. Fascinated, she glanced from the speeding, soaring feather-balls to Mihul, watched the tall woman straighten for an overhead shot, left hand grasping right wrist to steady the lightweight Denton—and in that particular instant Trigger knew exactly what was ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz

... lad to go out there, and if he had any trouble proving who he was to come back here to me," said Hale importantly. "I can help him straighten out the tangles. I've untied many a knot for families more tangled up than this. So he may be back, he may be back. Drop in any day, and I'll tell you whatever ...
— Betty Gordon in Washington • Alice B. Emerson

... restore the right relation of these weights and all will again be harmonious. Do not interfere with the shoulders, but straighten the front of the body by elevating the chest and raising the head until it is supported directly on the spine, letting the shoulders take care of themselves. If the abdomen is now held back and the gluteal muscles ...
— What a Young Woman Ought to Know • Mary Wood-Allen

... feller has a dream—a longin', an' he bows his back an' works his life away tryin' to realize it. If he does, the chances is he's disappointed. He finds he's kep' his back bent so long he can't straighten it. Look at me—pore as dirt an' scarcely enough to eat! I used to pray for a miracle; pray for money enough to do something for Ma an' the children—for a thousan' dollars. Here I am, president of a whole bank, but Ma's sick, Allie's miserable, an' I can't ...
— Flowing Gold • Rex Beach

... 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. As he whisked ...
— Fighting France - From Dunkerque to Belport • Edith Wharton

... wide enough to extend from the hip to the armpit. Lay the palm of your right hand firmly over band and pad and turn the child carefully, holding your right hand still under him, and with the left, clear away all damp towels, and then straighten out the band that is wrinkled under one side. Keep your knees close together. Now take away the right hand, and see that the baby's knees are on the right side of your knee, and the elbows well over the other side of your lap. Now ...
— Making Good On Private Duty • Harriet Camp Lounsbery

... day in camp trying to straighten things out: (1) the personal, (2) the strategical ...
— Gallipoli Diary, Volume 2 • Ian Hamilton

... last one but the school-teacher has left. There is something sublimely grand in being alone at midnight in a house that was only a short time before full of life and mirth. One has a desire to sit and look on the moonlight and dream. But it is more practical to straighten up ...
— American Missionary, August, 1888, (Vol. XLII, No. 8) • Various

... this degree to the control of monitors. But it is only a sign of the influences that here lead to self-reliance and self-control. Every year a new set of uncouth and undeveloped young people come shambling in, looking around with bewildered eyes. But they soon begin to straighten up and fall into step. Their vague ideas get settled, and their minds, slow at first, wake up. In a few years they will be made over new, not perfect, but vastly improved. They will be out teaching, spreading light ...
— American Missionary, Vol. XLII., May, 1888., No. 5 • Various

... blow of an announcement, before the ball was over, that Miss Nelson was going to marry the Duc de Divonne (she went out of the room to get engaged to him). For Sir Samuel, a telegram from his London solicitors advising him to hurry home and straighten out ...
— The Motor Maid • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson

... 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 ...
— The Rover Boys in Alaska - or Lost in the Fields of Ice • Arthur M. Winfield

... "Why, I don't possess such a thing! If the water is good and hot and clean, you don't need a towel. Just let the dishes drain. It is much more sanitary. Towels are awful germ harborers. But if you want to help, you might straighten up this table. Don't ask for a cloth or ...
— Molly Brown's Orchard Home • Nell Speed

... to come over to England too soon. If anything kept him up there among the mountains a month or so longer than he expected, so that I should have time to straighten up things a little, ...
— Alton of Somasco • Harold Bindloss

... by the chill of night, after the sun shines on them straighten themselves all open on their stem, so my weak virtue became, and such good daring hastened to my heart that I began like one enfranchised:—"O compassionate she who succored! and thou courteous who didst speedily obey the true words that she addressed ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various

... 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, ...
— Enter Bridget • Thomas Cobb

... to follow it?" Kramer knocked the ashes out of his pipe, looked at the laboratory clock and shrugged. "Ten minutes more," he said, "and these tubes will be ready. Keep an eye on that clock and let me know. Meantime you can straighten up this lab and find out where things are. I'll be in the office checking the progress reports." He turned abruptly away, leaving her standing in the middle of the ...
— Pandemic • Jesse Franklin Bone

... works on the front instrument keeps a cross hair on a fixed star. When the curving of the ship deviates us more than five degrees from our course, a side motor is turned on until we straighten out again. It is quite a simple matter and I'll take the ship myself when we near Mars. There is no need to ...
— Giants on the Earth • Sterner St. Paul Meek

... in the adjoining room were becoming louder and more boisterous. What she presently heard caused her to straighten suddenly up, and a chill to sweep through her body. The men were calling for her, and demanding the chief ...
— The King's Arrow - A Tale of the United Empire Loyalists • H. A. Cody

... no knowledge of a bad man who was human in spots without being repentant. For love of a girl, she had been taught to believe, the worst outlaw would weep over his past misdeeds, straighten his shoulders, look to heaven for help and become a self-sacrificing hero for whom audiences might be counted upon to shed ...
— The Quirt • B.M. Bower

... following his companion's example, and drinking joyfully before thinking of aught else. When the moment came for him to straighten his back, and rise upon his legs, instead of this natural proceeding, he suddenly crouched close to the ground, his breath coming in quick puffs, his eyes dilating, a froth of ...
— Camp and Trail - A Story of the Maine Woods • Isabel Hornibrook

... leaves, where they have lain since last October, and scatters them in a trice, so that every cranny may be sunned and aired. Or, grasping her long brooms by the handles, she will go into the woods and beat the icicles off the big trees as a housewife would brush down cobwebs; so that the released limbs straighten up like a man who has gotten out of debt, and almost say to you, joyfully, "Now, then, we are all right again!" This done, she begins to hang up soft new curtains at the forest windows, and to spread over her floor ...
— A Kentucky Cardinal • James Lane Allen

... was taken ill her little body was paralyzed and drawn all out of shape it seemed. Then in a few days her little limbs were so we could almost straighten them. What suffering she endured all that time, no one knows but those who ...
— Children's Edition of Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer • S. B. Shaw

... are both fine and genuine they can still be spoiled, or, at least, injured in transit from the ground where they grew. Dig so as to save all the roots, shake these clean of earth, straighten them out, and tie the plants into bundles of fifty. Pack in boxes, with the roots down in moss and the tops exposed to the air. Do not press them in too tightly or make them too wet, or else the plants become heated —a process which speedily robs ...
— Success With Small Fruits • E. P. Roe

... was a sweet-faced and mild-looking lady, who reminded Samuel of the picture of his mother. All the while that Everley was telling his story the boy was staring at her, and trying to straighten out the tangle of perplexity that was caused in his mind by the idea of her being a ...
— Samuel the Seeker • Upton Sinclair

... again, he will find the same result; but if he will try it with a round bore grooved, and with a plug fitting the grooves, he will see that the pressure is against the wall of the groove, and acts at right angles to the radius of the bore, having only a tendency to twist the barrel in order to straighten the grooves,—a tendency which the barrel meets in the direction of its greatest stability. We may see, then, that, in theory at least, there is no way of rifling so secure as that in which the walls of the grooves are parts of radii of the bore. They should ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 24, Oct. 1859 • Various

... straighten the brook, Uncle Joe," asked Bob, after a moment's thought, "or move it over to the south side against the bank there. That would make it almost a straight line between the lane bridge and the ...
— Hidden Treasure • John Thomas Simpson

... bending over to grip the dead man the same sound filled the air, but this time louder, more intense, a cry of great agony. The sweat dripped from McCurdie's forehead. They lifted the dead man and brought him into the room, and after laying him on a dirty strip of carpet they did their best to straighten the stiff limbs. Biggleswade put on the table a bundle which he had picked up outside. It contained some poor provisions—a loaf, a piece of fat bacon, and a paper of tea. As far as they could guess (and as they learned later they guessed rightly) ...
— A Christmas Mystery - The Story of Three Wise Men • William J. Locke

... sword on, and each his pistols, and their boots and mud-splashed uniforms of dubious blue are wet and steamy. The one without the sword gives the fiddler a fresh name to sing out when the spinning ring shall straighten into its two gay ranks again, and bids him—commandingly—to yell it; and with never a suspicion of what it stands for, the stamping and scraping fiddler shouts the name of a man who "loves a good story with a ...
— The Cavalier • George Washington Cable

... attempting to roll one end of it over the side of another projecting log, but were continually foiled, because the other end was jammed fast. Each bent his knees, inserting his shoulder under the projecting peavey stock, to straighten in a ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White

... intoxication? What could improve it, except, perhaps, a battered hat, worn lop-sided, and a cigar-stump? He is a drunken old camel-gander, coming home in the small hours, and having difficulties with his latch-key. Straighten Atkinson's neck, open wide his eyes, and take a three-quarter face view of him. Sober, sour, and indignant, there stands, not the inebriated Atkinson, but the disturbed Mrs. Atkinson on the stairs, with a candle, and a nightcap, and a lecture. That awful mouth actually conjures that ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 25, January 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... my advice, young man, and whenever anything happens to you while you're away, take down the names of the witnesses and keep their affidavits. Then you'll be all ready to get your pension as soon as you come back. It took me three years to straighten out mine. Then I got the back pay, of course, but I ought to have had it before. I've got a claim in now for eight dollars more a month running all the way back. It amounts to over three thousand dollars, and I ought to ...
— Captain Jinks, Hero • Ernest Crosby

... he joined the man and helped to straighten out the tangled rope. Rostom spoke little Russian, and O'Malley's knowledge of Georgian lay in a single phrase, "Look sharp!" but with the aid of French the man had learned from shooting-parties, he gathered that some one ...
— The Centaur • Algernon Blackwood

... the burning ship drifted the tiny boat. All that the crew of it could do was to keep the stern straight into the waves and straighten her out when a great roller sent them flying. Lower and lower appeared the hull of the Josephine, when an occasional glimpse could be had of her from the crest of some huge wave. At length she disappeared, entirely burned to the water's edge, and thus came ...
— The Go Ahead Boys and the Treasure Cave • Ross Kay

... the suspended parts are brought nearly to the required bearing, the hot iron is held for a moment close up to each attachment, the hand being held close below but not touching the suspended parts, and both attachments are allowed to straighten themselves out naturally. ...
— On Laboratory Arts • Richard Threlfall

... them how to take a ruler and straighten the edges,—if the edges were built; and how to crowd a corner down into a corner of the tray, and so keep the pieces in place. So engrossed were the two that Mrs. Spencer had difficulty to persuade them ...
— Marjorie's New Friend • Carolyn Wells

... 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 ...
— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey

... attributed to Abraham when "exercised" by the unkindly temper of Sarah; "woman is made hard and crooked like a rib;" and the modern addition is, "whoso would straighten her, ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... clothes, those he wore last night, and his tell-tale stockings. If his mother noticed them now, the whole affair would be shown up. And at that moment Mrs. Anketell did catch sight of the stockings, lying inside out and rolled up anyhow, on the floor, and instinctively she picked one up and began to straighten it, while Paul watched her actions with feelings such as an animal must suffer when caught in ...
— Paul the Courageous • Mabel Quiller-Couch

... occludent edges of the scuta. Within the prosoma there is a strong adductor muscle, running straight from side to side, for the purpose, as it appears, of flattening the body. The thorax, on the dorsal and ventral surfaces, is well furnished with straight and oblique muscles (without striae), which straighten and curl up this part of the body. The muscles running into the pedicels of the cirri, cross each other on the ventral surface of the thorax; the muscles within the rami are attached to the upper segments of the pedicels. Finally, I may remark that the whole of ...
— A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2) - The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes • Charles Darwin

... I, like my imperial lady-mother, keep two thousand horses in my stables. Moreover, the pension-list shall be decreased—let the retrenchment fall upon whom it may. But all this will not suffice to straighten my financial affairs. I need several millions more. And as they are to be found in church and convent, I ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... must get off by myself, and straighten out my notes, and see where I stand. Are you going to telephone ...
— Raspberry Jam • Carolyn Wells

... her false guardians drawn, Chicane in furs, and Casuistry in lawn, Gasps, as they straighten at each end the cord, And dies, ...
— A Book About Lawyers • John Cordy Jeaffreson

... he listened again. "If it's that way, Joe, I'll have to come down. I'll certainly never put an honest chap in bad or leave him in wrong, when a word can straighten the thing. Hold 'em there! I'll be ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day

... icy rime That hearts are scarcely hot enough to beat, Thy fame, O Lady of the lofty eyes, Doth fall along the age, like as a lane Of Spring, in whose most generous boundaries Full many a frozen virtue warms again. To-day I saw the pale much-burdened form Of Charity come limping o'er the line, And straighten from the bending of the storm And flush with stirrings of new strength divine, Such influence and sweet gracious impulse came Out of the ...
— The Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier

... defunct periodical I am going to reprint one of my own papers. The poor little piece is all tail-foremost. I have done my best to straighten its array, I have pruned it fearlessly, and it remains invertebrate and wordy. No self-respecting magazine would print the thing; and here you behold it in a bound volume, not for any worth of its own, but for the sake of the man whom it purports dimly to represent and some of whose ...
— Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson

... supposed to weigh close to two hundred, by the tail. With a wonderful heave he lifted it up and swung it over his master's fence into a leafless copper beach that graced the plot, whence the animal fell to the ground, looking dazed. It took several minutes to straighten out the tangled traces and the leader was hopelessly lame. He had to be taken out and left at home. All the time Stefan's language brought scared faces to the windows of neighboring shacks. It was a good thing, probably, that few people ...
— The Peace of Roaring River • George van Schaick

... Silas, bestowing a slap on his back which nearly knocked him down, "straighten them knees o' yourn, and be a man. Yes, Mr. Schoolmaster, Dan is a-going to bear witness agin' you. He has turned from the error of his ways, and now his noble southern heart is a-burnin' to take vengeance on all the enemies of his beloved country. Ain't ...
— Cudjo's Cave • J. T. Trowbridge

... gray, his hair white, his shoulders prematurely bent. Deep wrinkles, lines of care and woe, were furrowed in his face. Only at times, when he delivered his fiery addresses to the people or when he courageously faced an enemy like Pashhur, would he straighten up to his full height and show a semblance of his gaunt form and ...
— Stories of the Prophets - (Before the Exile) • Isaac Landman

... quarrelling all the time unless you have your own way about everything, whether it's fair that you should or not. Now, tell me what you wanted to talk to me about, and we'll try to do better—those troublesome details you mentioned before you left the farm? Perhaps I can straighten out some of them for you, if ...
— The Old Gray Homestead • Frances Parkinson Keyes

... marvelled at this feat, all save the fool Surly John, who raises a great outcry that his knife is marred. But Hardcastle, whose head was now pretty much filled with drink, cried out: "Hold thy peace, John; doubtless this youngling here hath enough craft to straighten thy whittle even as he has crooked and winded it. By the mass he is a handy smith and will be of much avail to me." Osberne reached out his hand for the knife, and John gave it to him, and he took it by the point as aforetime, and lo, in a moment it was ...
— The Sundering Flood • William Morris

... that he does that 'THIS is right,' and 'THAT is wrong'; 'this is pretty,' and 'that is ugly'; so that he may learn what to follow and what to shun. If he obeys willingly—why, excellent. If not, then try by threats and blows to correct him, as men straighten a warped and crooked sapling." Also after he is fairly in school "the teacher is enjoined to pay more attention to his morals and conduct than to his progress ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis

... nature, had made a furious onslaught on the geese, and presently turned the pursuers into the pursued. Then he had picked up the ubiquitous satchel which Miss Trevor had dropped in her flight, attempted to straighten her bonnet which was all awry—she thought none the less of him because his awkward efforts left it rather worse than before—and escorted her quite beyond the reach of the hissing, long-necked enemy, who seemed inclined to renew the attack were his protection ...
— Bessie Bradford's Prize • Joanna H. Mathews

... discovery. It was battle! And death! The table went over, we went spinning against the wall, a crash of falling bookcases, books and broken glass, a scurry and a flying heap of legs and arms. He was wonderfully strong and active, like a panther. Each time I held him he would twist out like a cat, straighten, and throw me out of hold. I clung on, fighting, striving for a grip, working for the throat. He was a man—a man! I remembered that he must never get away. He must account ...
— The Blind Spot • Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint

... one lightning flash will take you in from head to foot, note every detail of your costume, and, the next day, imitate whatever parts of it please their fancy and fall in with their national customs. They are adepts at mimicry and among themselves will lash us mercilessly. They straighten up their shoulders, pull in the abdomen, and strut about with a stiff-backed walk and with their hands hanging stiffly at their sides. They themselves are full of magnetism and can advance with outstretched hand and greet you in such ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee

... inventions—with what giant strides the world has progressed while he quietly followed the plough! An acknowledgment has been publicly awarded to him for that long and faithful service. He puts forth his arm; his dry, horny fingers are crooked, and he can neither straighten nor bend them. Not the least sign appears upon his countenance that he is even conscious of what is passing. There is a quick flash of jewelled rings ungloved to the light, and the reward is placed in that claw-like grasp by the ...
— Hodge and His Masters • Richard Jefferies

... will then release itself at a moderate size and pass up through the glass without any danger of striking the sides. However, if the Lubricator is on crooked it may do this same thing. The remedy is very simple-straighten it up. While talking of the various appliances for oiling your engine you will pardon me if I say that I think every traction engine ought to be supplied with an oil pump as you will find it very convenient for ...
— Rough and Tumble Engineering • James H. Maggard



Words linked to "Straighten" :   arrange, square away, clean house, extend, rise up, make, tidy, neaten, untwine, comb, disentangle, modify, untwist, change posture, straighten up, make up, set up, clean, straightener, alter, roll out, rear, straighten out, unweave, channelize, bend, order, tidy up, channelise



Copyright © 2024 Diccionario ingles.com