Free TranslationFree Translation
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



... 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, read, nor write. ...
— The Opium Habit • Horace B. Day

... followed by Clarence and John with a dish of canned vegetables apiece. It was far from being the dinner Joy had planned, but the biscuits were greatly admired, and every one was happy. That is, Joy was, and apparently the men were. Joy was so pleased to think that she had been able to straighten out things, and get them a good dinner, that she forgot to think about Gail at all. She sat in the tall armchair at the head of the table where John had placed her, and poured coffee in big cups, to be taken with the dinner, with flushed ...
— The Wishing-Ring Man • Margaret Widdemer

... out of the Venusian's way, and watched as Astro got down on his hands and knees, putting his shoulder against the case. He lifted it about three inches, then slowly, still balancing the weight on his shoulder, shifted his position, braced it with his hands and began to straighten up. The casing came up from the floor as the huge cadet ...
— Stand by for Mars! • Carey Rockwell

... 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

... roused and made a pathetic effort to straighten his drooping figure. "I think,—er,—Josiah, I see your game at last. You purpose to frighten me with these wild tales from some old witch. I shall compel you to offer proof, for all your ...
— Captain Pott's Minister • Francis L. Cooper

... Tuesday, July 29th, Major General John Samford sent word down that he would hold a press conference that afternoon in an attempt to straighten out the UFO situation with ...
— The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects • Edward Ruppelt

... but you find a pin hidden in it," went on the girl. "All her remarks are meant to be read backward, and my life is too short to straighten out their kinks. I like a person to say what they mean in plain English, and then I can either like them ...
— The Metropolis • Upton Sinclair

... is, ma, it is, b-but only in a business way. A little trip will straighten it up, I think." And she was courteous but indefatigable in hastening the ...
— The Harbor of Doubt • Frank Williams

... suffer like him in this? For the citizens arraigned him, and did not leave off till they had banished him, that, as Plato says, they might not hear him for the space of ten years. For high and noble minds seldom please the vulgar, or are acceptable to them; for the force they use to straighten their distorted actions gives the same pain as surgeons' bandages do in bringing dislocated bones to their natural position. Both of them, perhaps, come off pretty much with an equal acquittal on ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... I'm sure. And everyone thinks you've done awfully well, Marthy. What can I do now? Wash the dishes and straighten ...
— The Ranch at the Wolverine • B. M. Bower

... estate; and he had added to it a statement—very cautious and diplomatic—of the various public and private quarrels in which Melrose was now concerned, with suggestions as to what could be done to straighten them out. With regard to two or three of them litigation was already going on; had, indeed, been going on interminably. Faversham was certain that with a little good-will and a very moderate amount of money he could settle the majority of them ...
— The Mating of Lydia • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... if any remain after all the beating and straining and cutting that it has had. The pulp flows upon an endless wire screen. Rubber straps at the sides keep it in, but the extra water drops through the meshes. The pulp is flowing onward, and so the tiny fibers would naturally straighten out and flow with it, like sticks in a river; but the wire screen is kept shaking sideways, and this helps the fibers to interlace, and the paper becomes nearly as strong ...
— Makers of Many Things • Eva March Tappan

... these dark strata. But if they did approach us, at least 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 resume ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne

... he's after, I'm sure," replied the man. "But he's sent down enough furniture an' truck to stock a hotel, an' I want to know ef you'll go over an' put it in the rooms, an' straighten things out." ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville • Edith Van Dyne

... 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 from scores of new centres, and sending ...
— American Missionary, Vol. XLII., May, 1888., No. 5 • Various

... go out of his arms; it was the only way, it seemed to him, that he could be sure of her. Evadna found words to express her thoughts, and her thoughts were as wholly conventional as was the impulse to straighten her hat. ...
— Good Indian • B. M. Bower

... "we'll try to straighten this thing out, but I've no intention of being victimized. It's quite clear that the boys don't seem in a humor to ...
— The Gold Trail • Harold Bindloss

... you that," Bienville repeated, taking his seat once more, and speaking with some animation. "I did my best to straighten ...
— The Inner Shrine • Basil King

... skin to get it alike on both sides, or, as the artists say, bilaterally symmetrical. When tacked out, go back to the face and perfect it so it may dry just right. With a fine awl point draw the upper eyelids down a little, straighten the eye brows, lashes and whiskers, and mould the nostrils into shape, bracing them with damp clay; when dry it is easily removed. Now set it aside until fully dry before proceeding with the trimming and lining. One and a half or two ...
— Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit • Albert B. Farnham

... in such a cane-field again, bedad," he muttered, as he started to pick up the gun he had dropped. As he did so a cracking of cane-stalks near them caused both to straighten up ...
— The Campaign of the Jungle - or, Under Lawton through Luzon • Edward Stratemeyer

... water, the earth having been cut away by the force of the rapid. I tried to pull up because they were too thick to crash through; but the fish willed it otherwise. The line was getting low on the reel; the rod bent double; presently I had to straighten it out—in another moment I was in the water over the boots, which filled of course in a moment. But this did not impede me as long as I ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne

... you don't mind," she said, relaxing suddenly. She sat down beside him once more, rather limply and with a deep, long-drawn sigh, as if she had spent herself in this single exposition of feeling. "Now what do you intend to do in regard to Lutie? Are you ready to straighten up and make the effort to—to be something creditable to ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon

... method of treating homosexuality. For the psychoanalytic theory (to which reference was made in the previous chapter) the congenital element of inversion is a rare and usually unimportant factor; the chief part is played by perverse psychic mechanisms. It is the business of psychoanalysis to straighten these out, and from the bisexual constitution, which is regarded as common to every one, to bring into the foreground the heterosexual elements, and so to reconstruct a normal personality, developing new sexual ideals from the patient's own latent ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... man, who would have thereupon been ground to atoms as he lay. With the utmost coolness Gladys swarmed the slanting face of the load; interposed the length of his cant-hook stock between the log and it; held it exactly long enough to straighten the timber, but not so long as to crush his own head and arm; and ducked, just as the great piece of wood rumbled over the end of the skids and dropped with a thud into the place Norton, the "top" ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White

... "our Tom" and "our Bob," who had of late satisfied themselves with screwing their bullet heads and a small portion of their persons round the angle of the door, walked boldly in, and cheerfully inquired how feyther felt hissel'; while "our Annie" and "our Polly" actually helped their mother to "straighten" the bed, and ventured to draw the sheet lightly over feyther's afflicted toe. The Gaffer, moreover, consented to swallow a basin of gruel with just a dash of spirits in it to take away the sickliness of it. Doctor Craddock had forbidden all stimulants, but, as Mrs. Wainwright remarked, ...
— North, South and Over the Sea • M.E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell)

... be," said Stubbs; "only I'm not. Now, I'll tell you, you just push through a little wire to General Oberlatz and he'll straighten this thing out." ...
— The Boy Allies in Great Peril • Clair W. Hayes

... you please, Miss Watson. Straighten the shoulders. Take the dress gracefully between fingers and thumb. Raise ...
— Our Frank - and other stories • Amy Walton

... 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 ...
— In Blue Creek Canon • Anna Chapin Ray

... you'll have to straighten out. It doesn't seem to be in my line." And he handed the paper to Major Ludlum, chief quartermaster of the department, who in turn read it, his eyes filling with ...
— Under Fire • Charles King

... 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 perfect, ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London

... I have finished! He who could discover a spot there could see through a stone. My arms are almost broken; I can scarcely straighten myself. Now for my last task! a grave is soon filled; in a half hour I shall be far from ...
— The Amulet • Hendrik Conscience

... trying to straighten his feeble frame, as his eyes brightened a little, "I wish I could: I'd like you to go into anything that makes muscle. But I can't afford it. You know I'm not workin' yet, an' until I do work the only hope of this family is in the little ...
— All He Knew - A Story • John Habberton

... and standing clear a pace from his doorway return the fire; saw the thudding frantic hoofs of the nigh horse spurn Harve Tatum's body aside—the kick broke his right leg, it turned out—saw Jess Tatum suddenly halt and stagger back as though jerked by an unseen hand; saw him drop his weapon and straighten again, and with both hands clutched to his throat run forward, head thrown back and feet drumming; heard him give one strange bubbling, strangled scream—it was the blood in his throat made this outcry sound ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... 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 ...
— A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga • Yogi Ramacharaka

... 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

... Christmas dinner to invite anyone to, and so we went to the Book, and the Book says—I will read ye the words, Rover. And, Sport, though ye be a younger dog, and naterally of less jedgment, yit ye have yer gifts, and I have seed ye straighten out a trail that Rover and me couldn't ontangle. So do ye listen, both of ye, like honest dogs, ...
— Holiday Tales - Christmas in the Adirondacks • W. H. H. Murray

... lovely, with a single gorgeous sapphire upon the third finger. "Good-by, my dear," he would say, "you have given me the most delightful afternoon of my life." For a moment Mrs. Denby's hand would linger on the bowed head; then Mr. McCain would straighten up, smile, square his shoulders in their smart, young-looking coat, and depart to his club, or the large, softly lit house where he dwelt alone. At dinner he would drink two glasses of champagne. Before he drained the last sip of the second pouring he would hold the glass up to the fire, ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 • Various

... day Ralph went up to London, and explained all the circumstances of the case to Mr. Carey. Mr. Carey undertook to do his best to straighten this very crooked episode in ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... dare say it will gratify her to straighten out your troubles. A word from her lips and your worries will vanish like a mist. Let us acknowledge ourselves beaten and ...
— The Silver Horde • Rex Beach

... Pour forth their populous youth about the hive In clusters: they among fresh dews and flowers Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, Now rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer Their state affairs: so thick the aery crowd Swarm'd and were straighten'd; till, the ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VIII • John Lord

... 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 ...
— Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson

... Which one of the lost tribes did you spring from—you're like none of your 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 take hold. We're ...
— The Wreck of the Titan - or, Futility • Morgan Robertson

... wire between the thumb and finger with a sweeping motion. A piece of cloth or paper may be held in the hand if the fingers become tender. Do not make small dents in the wire in attempting to straighten it, as it will be ...
— Make Your Own Hats • Gene Allen Martin

... do, however, which deadened fear. In the main street the procession was met by hurrying doctors and nurses. For those broken bodies indeed—young men in their prime—nothing could be done, save to straighten the poor limbs, to wash the coal dust from the strong faces, and cover all with the white linen of death. But the living—the crushed, stricken living—taxed every energy of heart and mind. Catharine, recognized ...
— The Case of Richard Meynell • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... joy to straighten out one's limbs, And leap elastic from the level counter, Leaving the petty grievances of earth, The breaking thread, the din of clashing shears, And all the needles that do wound the spirit, For such a pensive hour of soothing silence. Kind Nature, shuffling ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... spot through the glass and— one might have known !—there was One of those eternal peasants calmly swinging his scythe about fifty yards short of the spot where the shrapnel had exploded. I could see him straighten up, glance at it, then go ...
— Antwerp to Gallipoli - A Year of the War on Many Fronts—and Behind Them • Arthur Ruhl

... 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 ...
— How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's - And Other Stories • W. H. H. Murray

... Germany for a Quote softer peace End Quote. I know you will not be led astray. There is an intense feeling in the Senate in favour of the publication of the terms of the Treaty. Can anything be done to straighten this out? ...
— Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him • Joseph P. Tumulty

... at a somewhat more advanced age, a filament was fixed near the base of one which was no longer arched, for its upper half now formed a right angle with the lower half. This bean had germinated on bare damp sand, and the epicotyl began to straighten itself much sooner than would have occurred if it had been properly planted. The course pursued during 50 h. (from 9 A.M. Dec. 26th, to 11 A.M. 28th) is here shown (Fig. 22); and we see Fig. 22. Vicia faba: circumnutation of young epicotyl, traced ...
— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin

... the future—who knows?' returned Mrs. Blake with restored gaiety; 'and until then a little work will not hurt Mollie. Do you know, when I was a girl, my mother always insisted on my sister Dora and myself making our own beds—she said it would straighten our backs—and she liked us to run up and down stairs and make ourselves useful, because the exercise would improve our carriage and complexion. Dora had such a pretty figure, poor girl! and I think mine is passable,' drawing herself up to ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... difficult to predict the course of affairs in the provinces. On the one hand the slave of the soil will take advantage of the Revolution to straighten his bowed back. Instead of working fourteen or fifteen hours a day, as he does at present, he will be at liberty to work only half that time, which of course would have the effect of decreasing the production of the principal ...
— The Conquest of Bread • Peter Kropotkin

... the good of being rough with 'em, ma'am? I can no more make 'em sober and sensible than I could straighten out their bushes of curly hair. No, not though I was to take my best rake to it. They're powerful plagues, bless 'em! but so far as I can see, we're in this world mainly to bring them forrard in it. I remember when my Joey was a very little chap, he was playing by me with ...
— Fated to Be Free • Jean Ingelow

... taken than with the sons of the vulgar. Whoever was not taught good manners in his boyhood, fortune will forsake him when he becomes a man. Thou may'st bend the green bough as thou likest; but let it once get dry, and it will require heat to straighten it:—'Verily thou may'st bend the tender branch, but it were labor lost to attempt ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 2, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous

... said the Colonel, with much mopping of his brow; "but you will be! We'll straighten it out. Soon as I get back, I'll take the matter up. Sift it clean to the bottom. We'll give Morley every chance to square himself. But 'til then, you won't see him if you can help it, or read his letters, if he writes? You don't mind promising ...
— A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill • Alice Hegan Rice

... "Straighten thy legs, and upward raise thee, brother," He answered: "Err not, fellow-servant am I With thee and with ...
— Dante's Purgatory • Dante

... time in packing his outfit. He ate breakfast when Mr. Parsons did, sitting down to it without any invitation from anybody, swallowed his coffee and pancakes scalding hot, saddled his horse, and rode away, leaving the cook to straighten affairs in the dugout; and all the while it seemed to him that he hadn't had any breakfast at all. He couldn't see anything of the cattle; but Mr. Parsons put his horse into a lope and proceeded to fill ...
— Elam Storm, The Wolfer - The Lost Nugget • Harry Castlemon

... she could see him straighten, and his voice came sharp as he ignored the ever-present parental background and retorted, "Somebody has got to be cheerful. Matter fact, I worked out ...
— Free Air • Sinclair Lewis

... casks to hold the water tight. Had we had carpenter or blacksmith among us, much of our labour might have been spared; but it must be remembered that we had only a few tools, to the use of which none of us were accustomed, and that nearly every nail we employed we had to draw from the planks and to straighten. ...
— Peter the Whaler • W.H.G. Kingston

... meat problem will get settled somehow," Jim told her cheerfully. "All problems straighten out, if you give 'em time. Now we're nearly home—that's the fence of our home-paddock. And there are Norah and Wally coming to ...
— Back To Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

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

... hysterical state. He would sit and look at her, as she sat bent over her typewriter. She had soft, fluffy hair, the color of twilight, and even white teeth, and a faint flush that came and went in her cheeks—yes, she would not be bad looking at all, if only she would straighten up, and spend a little time on her looks, as ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair

... and clean the nozzle with waste or a rag, rubbing the points smooth and clean. The drop 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 a traction engine especially on the ...
— Rough and Tumble Engineering • James H. Maggard

... never noticed the change in conversation with the entrance of a new person? How, when a lovely girl enters, the men all straighten their ties and the women moisten their lips? How, when the new person is a self-made man, with his newness so apparent that he seems to exhale the odor of varnish and gilt—how all repose vanishes, and whatever ...
— From a Girl's Point of View • Lilian Bell

... 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

... had been away three full days. Lee, thinking hurriedly, thought that he saw now the explanation of Judith's ordering a sale like this. Her lawyers had found what Marcia called a "tangle" in Luke Sanford's affairs; there had been an insistent call for a large sum of money to straighten it out, and Judith had ...
— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory

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

... to the ground by the whole weight of the tiger, who had sprung upon him. The man had stood at the moment in a partial opening, so that man and beast were now in full sight. One of the hunters instantly leveled his rifle, and with deliberate aim sent a ball through the tiger's brain, causing him to straighten out at ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou

... Process of Rehabilitation by some who witnessed it; for all knew it was big with meaning, though none knew what that meaning was at that time, of course. For suddenly we saw the King shake off his indolent attitude and straighten up like a man, and at the same time look immeasurably astonished. It was as if Joan had told him something almost too wonderful for belief, and yet of a most ...
— Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - Volume 1 (of 2) • Mark Twain

... red walls, its cheap Nottingham lace curtains tied back with cords, its elaborately carved walnut furniture, and its litter of days old newspapers upon the bed. She saw his neckties hanging in an uneven row over the oblong mirror, and she controlled a nervous impulse to straighten them ...
— Virginia • Ellen Glasgow

... action up 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 trying to fasten the rope ...
— Tales of lonely trails • Zane Grey

... folly at the fair. There was Hetty Slocum, the girl who coaxed me into buying the doll; and Maggie Markham, who sold me the quilt; and Belle, and two others, and they were chatting and giggling over some joke, and had to stop on the steps until they could straighten their ...
— The Blunders of a Bashful Man • Metta Victoria Fuller Victor

... he invited. "Come right in. It's only a little legal tangle I'm trying to straighten out," for Mr. ...
— The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp - Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats • Laura Lee Hope

... but it was some time before they could straighten their stiffened backs, and recover from the spectacle of those who had died of fright. When the hymn was over, the people fell in each other's arms, weeping and laughing like lunatics, as they gave each ...
— Historical Miniatures • August Strindberg

... and Hair, Care of the Science and Statistics, Facts of Shakespeare's Counsel Shaving, Hints on Short Rules for Spelling Shoulders, To Straighten Round Single Tax, The Skin, Care of the Social Forms Sparrow, The English Spelling, Short Rules for Sponges, Facts About States, Mottoes of the States, The Names of the Steps in the Growth of American Liberty Swollen Feet, ...
— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens

... brave brother Tailors, come, straighten your knees, For a moment, like gentlemen, stand up at ease, While I sing of our Prince (and a fig for his railers), The Shop-board's delight! the Maecenas of Tailors! Derry down, ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... just one person who can straighten things out, and that person is Diana Gregory. Men aren't any good at a time like this. They think with their heads, but women think with their hearts, and that's the kind of thinking that you ...
— Glory of Youth • Temple Bailey

... he admitted. "I have taken altogether too many risks in the past. A fellow has to sober down and straighten up if he means to ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish

... slipped off the back porch and hurt her knee. I can just see Sister Boggs laying down the law to anybody that finds fault with the infant-class, let him be preacher or who. Why the very idea! Do you mean to say, sir—I guess Sister Boggs can straighten him out all right. ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood

... whether we play Hamlet or not. It's grand fun and will straighten you up capitally. But I don't believe that was your only reason for saying 'I'm glad' in that decided way, ...
— Little Women • Louisa May Alcott

... charged you too much, did she? Is that the way it all began? Did she insult you? Well, women-folk are liable to flare up, you know. Tell me all about it. I'll straighten it out between you. The children miss you awfully. Come, don't be a fool, Levinsky. Who ever took the words of a woman seriously? What did she say that you should ...
— The Rise of David Levinsky • Abraham Cahan

... by all means; then you can get a good start with your ironing to-morrow!" Anne agreed, rousing herself from her revery. "Put them all around the fire. And I MUST straighten this room!" she said, half to herself; ...
— Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby and Other Stories • Kathleen Norris

... Stephen fancied, for on returning to work, Smallbones, who presided over all the rougher parts of the business, claimed them both. He set Stephen to stand by him, sort out and hand him all the rivets needed for a suit of proof armour that hung on a frame, while he required Giles to straighten bars of iron heated to a white heat. Ere long Giles called out for Stephen to change places, to which Smallbones coolly replied, "Turnabout is the ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... loves a man she ought to be willing to trust him over a dreadful bungle until he could straighten things out and make good again—that's true, ...
— Seven Miles to Arden • Ruth Sawyer

... would be an engulfment—horse and man we were sinking in it. Then it was—most in all my days—that I felt dense mystery overwhelming me. "O infinite earth," I thought, "our unknowing mother, our unknowing grave!"—"What is it?" he said, feeling my wrist straighten where it lay on his shoulder, and the tremor and the hand seeking him. Was it a premonition? "Nothing," I answered, and did not tell him; but he began to cheer me with lighter talk, and win me back to the levels of life, and under his sensitive and loving ways, the excitement of ...
— Heart of Man • George Edward Woodberry

... 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. ...
— Pierrette • Honore de Balzac

... not," he answered, looking at me over his glasses, and I could see a pain straighten out the corners of his mouth under his fierce white mustache. "The judge's debts made a mortgage that nicely blanketed the place, and Sam had only to turn it over to the creditors and walk out to that little two-hundred-acre brier-patch the judge ...
— Over Paradise Ridge - A Romance • Maria Thompson Daviess

... it will take the Shawnees an' the Miamis to straighten out that tangle about the great war trail?" asked ...
— The Forest Runners - A Story of the Great War Trail in Early Kentucky • Joseph A. Altsheler

... 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 struck at the air with his fore feet, as though trying to climb an invisible ladder. ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs

... 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 3 per cent ...
— Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich

... object of tentering[14] is to straighten and level the fabric. After the cloth leaves the tentering machine it has lost its natural moisture, and is not at all fitted, as far as fiber condition is concerned, for the napping. To bring it into a fit state for this operation it is passed through ...
— Textiles • William H. Dooley

... begin. Reddy wigwagged back O. K., and then the first heliographic message was sent from the ledge to the island. It was a rather mixed-up message, and kept Jim and Reddy wigwagging back and forth very strenuously to straighten matters out. It was my duty to keep the mirror focused. As the sun moved across the sky the shadow spot would move off the disk, and I had to keep shifting the mirror to bring the spot back where it belonged. We used the International Telegraph ...
— The Scientific American Boy - The Camp at Willow Clump Island • A. Russell Bond

... 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 new carpet of an emerald loveliness such as no mortal looms could ...
— A Kentucky Cardinal • James Lane Allen

... surgeon happening to be at Epsom Race course on a friend's drag, had hurried to offer his services. He was examining the unconscious woman and striving very gently to straighten and disentangle her crooked body. Presently there was a respectful stir in the privileged ring, and Vivie was conscious by the raising of hats that the King stood amongst them looking down on the woman who had offered up her life before his eyes ...
— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... Jean, "of course they would come first, but, oh, I would do such a lot of things! I'd find out where money was most needed and drop it on the people anonymously so that they wouldn't be bothered about thanking anyone. I would creep about like a beneficent Puck and take worried frowns away, and straighten out things for tired people, and, above all, I'd make children smile. There's no fun or satisfaction got from giving big sums to hospitals and things—that's all right for when you're dead. I want to make happiness while I'm alive. I don't ...
— Penny Plain • Anna Buchan (writing as O. Douglas)

... was no permanent place for the negro in the United States, if indeed anywhere in the world, except under the ground. More pathetic even than Jerry's efforts to escape from the universal doom of his race was his ignorance that even if he could, by some strange alchemy, bleach his skin and straighten his hair, there would still remain, underneath it all, only the unbleached darky,—the ass ...
— The Marrow of Tradition • Charles W. Chesnutt

... anyway, for us to have a talk with an older classman," argued Dave. "Button your blouse, straighten your hair ...
— Dave Darrin's Second Year at Annapolis - Or, Two Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters" • H. Irving Hancock

... it is, Nan, this place is yours, for as long as you want to stay," he said soberly. And then: "You straighten things around here to suit you, and I'll be back in ...
— The Quickening • Francis Lynde

... 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 you have the baby where he can ...
— Making Good On Private Duty • Harriet Camp Lounsbery

... I wanted you to say," interrupted Richling, trying hard to smile; "then you can let me straighten ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable

... and tried in vain to straighten his crooked gun. I let him go on for some time, and then allowed him to take another; for I saw he was penitent. The dogs, too, snarled, and would not let him approach them. He wept, and begged some biscuit from his mother, declaring he would give up his own breakfast to make his peace ...
— The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island • Johann David Wyss

... was busy in the adjoining room, heard an excited exclamation, and then the call, "Oh, Eliot, Eliot! Come here, quick!" She was stooping over the bed inspecting some clean clothes that had been sent in from the laundry. Before she could straighten herself up to answer the call, her elbows were seized from behind, and Eugenia began waltzing her around backwards at a rate ...
— The Little Colonel's House Party • Annie Fellows Johnston

... at the point where the two lines met, he threw a hasty glance around, and began to dig rapidly. He faced the sea now, and had his back turned to me, so that I could straighten myself up, and watch at greater ease. He dug rapidly, and the pit, as his spade threw out heap after heap of soft sand, grew quickly bigger. If treasure really lay there, it would soon ...
— Dead Man's Rock • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... 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 ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz

... at this moment. You'll understand that we don't wish to make any statement until we can do so definitely, and we are still, as I said, quite at sea. We'll try to straighten everything out as soon as possible, and give you and Miss Lawton a full report. In the meantime, why not consult Mr. Mallowe? He can give you more explicit information concerning the late Mr. Lawton's speculation and final insolvency than we shall be able to do for some ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... through Iowa they received intelligence of a big scandal in connection with the emigration business in England, and P. P. Pratt, Orson Hyde, and John Taylor were hurriedly sent to that country to straighten the matter out. The Millennial Star in the early part of 1846 had frequent articles about the British and American Commercial Joint Stock Company, an organization incorporated to assist poor Saints in emigrating. The principal emigration agent in Great Britain ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn

... the breast were bended so that they unriveted the holdfasts of their shields, and they lost their stirrups, and the reins fly from their fists, and they stagger against the back saddlebows, and the horses stumbled so as that they all but fell. They straighten them in saddle and stirrup, and catch hold upon their reins, and then come together again, burning with wrath and fury like lions, and either smiteth on other with their spears that may endure no ...
— High History of the Holy Graal • Unknown

... two minutes—two long, pregnant minutes—we watched it in silence. The damp air was fogging the lenses, but I kept them to my eyes; for I did not want to look at Davies. At last I heard him draw a deep breath, straighten himself up, and give one of his characteristic 'h'ms'. Then he turned briskly aft, cast off the dinghy's painter, and pulled ...
— Riddle of the Sands • Erskine Childers

... 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 beams ...
— The Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier

... your legs that way when you walk—as though a band were playing? Wait, I'll straighten your ...
— The Green Mouse • Robert W. Chambers

... what kind of a book she reads," blurted Helm, "she's a fine, pure, good girl. Everybody likes her. She's the good angel of this miserable frog-hole of a town. You'd like her yourself, if you'd straighten up and quit burning tow in your brain all the time. You're always so furious about something that you never have a chance to be just to yourself, ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson

... the Hofschulze does not take kindly to the idea of their marriage, for Oswald has not always revered Westphalian traditions, the secret tribunal, for example, as he should have done; Oswald's friends in Suabia object to his marrying a foundling, and advise him to come home and straighten out a love affair he has there before entering into a new and foreign one; the doctor is not even certain that the wedding is hygienically wise. But love dispels all fears and doubts, and the good Deacon makes Oswald ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various

... try it again on the other side of the ring. Better! Now walk around, and make him go into the corners, if you have to double your left wrist in doing it, but don't move your arm, and when you begin to bend you right wrist to turn, straighten your left, and remember to lean your body and turn your head, if you want your horse to turn his body. Your wrist acts on his head and keeps him in line; your whip and leg bring his hind legs under him, but you must move your body if you want him to ...
— In the Riding-School; Chats With Esmeralda • Theo. Stephenson Browne

... day in camp trying to straighten things out: (1) the personal, (2) the strategical and (3) ...
— Gallipoli Diary, Volume 2 • Ian Hamilton

... Pumpkinhead was, as you have guessed, a ripe pumpkin, with the eyes, nose and mouth carved upon one side. The pumpkin was stuck on Jack's wooden neck and was liable to get turned sidewise or backward and then he would have to straighten it with his ...
— Glinda of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... a seat." Then the clerk passed his hand over his face to straighten out a rebellious smile and hid his ...
— Colonel Carter's Christmas and The Romance of an Old-Fashioned Gentleman • F. Hopkinson Smith

... I think you'll go, all right. Hurry now, for you must be back in time to help me get supper. Fairy'll have to straighten the front room, and we won't have time. Run along, ...
— Prudence of the Parsonage • Ethel Hueston

... the tug of Cherry's, that she was suspected of trying to snatch the fairings, instead of merely restoring them, and she straightened herself with a return of her sick anger. Cherry clutched the frail morsels of riband and lace in her lap, then, seeing there was no danger, began to straighten them out, scolding ...
— The White Riband - A Young Female's Folly • Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse

... as the biggest and strongest! It is high time that somebody was coming to me with council news if things are like this. Look out, Mister Fox, and Wolverine, and Wild Cat, for if I get after you I will so straighten you out that you will be sorry that the rabbit had to go to Nanahboozhoo for the help you ought to ...
— Algonquin Indian Tales • Egerton R. Young

... 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

... he pointed 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 Heart of Unaga • Ridgwell Cullum

... squint-eyed thief, Dave Sassoon—all hold-up men, every one of them! Henry, I'm putting you in on that job because you've got nerve, because you can shoot, because I don't think they can get you—and paying you a whaling big salary to straighten things out along the Spanish Sinks. Do you know, Henry—" Jeffries leaned forward and lowered his tone. Master of the art of persuading and convincing, of hammering and pounding, of swaying the doubting and deciding the undecided, the strong-eyed ...
— Nan of Music Mountain • Frank H. Spearman

... and then 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 ...
— The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle - The Trail of the Seven Cedars • Hildegard G. Frey

... two months. Now, I know you've all been fightin' for places on the team, and have had no chance to be friendly. It's always that way in the beginnin', and I dare say there'll be some scraps among you before things straighten out. We'll have more to say about that later. The thing now is you're all varsity men, and I'm puttin' you on your word of honor. Your word is good enough for me. Here's my rules, and I'm more than usually particular this year, for ...
— The Young Pitcher • Zane Grey

... staggered through on the other side. It was buffeted here and there, now covered with a ton of water, now topping a ten-foot wave. Like a skilled boxer—quick of eye, and ready to seize any temporary advantage—the oarsman shot in his oars for two quick strokes, to straighten the boat with the current or dodge a threatening boulder; then covered by lifting his oars and ducking his head as a brown flood rolled over him. Time and again the manoeuvre was repeated: now here now there. One would think the chances were about one to a hundred that he would get ...
— Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico • E. L. Kolb

... Mother asked 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

... be lost. The new president would certainly try to disown the debt. Kit, however, had known that Adam's staunchness might cost him much, and something might, perhaps, be saved. He had had enough of the country, and as soon as he could straighten out the tangle in which the revolution had involved Adam's business he was going back ...
— The Buccaneer Farmer - Published In England Under The Title "Askew's Victory" • Harold Bindloss

... to dry them thoroughly at that season of the year, and nothing is more dangerous than to allow persons to sleep in a damp room. The housemaid should now dust the furniture, blinds, ornaments, &c.; polish the looking-glass; arrange the toilet-cover and muslin; remove the cover from the bed, and straighten and arrange the curtains and counterpane. A bedroom should be cleaned like this every week. There are times, however, when it is necessary to have the carpet up; this should be done once a year in the country, and twice a year in large cities. The best time for these arrangements is spring and ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... feed the ravens of a foreign shore! "If this had only come to pass a dozen years ago," he added, while a gleam of light illumined the sound eye, "I might have gone off to Valhalla with a straight hack and some credit. But mayhap a good onset will straighten it yet, who knows?—and I do feel as if I had strength left to send at least one foe out of the ...
— Erling the Bold • R.M. Ballantyne

... hear Bully whispering out of the bushes to her, for she didn't know that he was around, but she did as he told her to. She suddenly let go of the basket handle, and the fox was so surprised that he nearly fell over sideways. And before he could straighten himself up Kittie Kat jumped back, and up a tree she scrambled before you could shake a stick at her, even if you wanted to. You see, she never thought of going up a tree until Bully ...
— Bully and Bawly No-Tail • Howard R. Garis

... and raised his hand in a proper salute to his superior officer. Then as they came nearer, and he saw the white woman who came with them, he lifted his head, tried to straighten his uniform a little with his left hand, and said ...
— The Sword of Antietam • Joseph A. Altsheler

... papers to a severe scrutiny. As the story ran, Burnside, in transparent honesty, wrote a cordial letter of thanks in reply, saying it was just what he desired, as he had been trying hard to make his accounts up, but had to confess he could do nothing with them, but was sure such an expert would straighten them. In my own service under him I often found occasion to supply the formal links in the official chain, so that business would move on according to "regulations;" but any trouble that was made in this way was much ...
— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V1 • Jacob Dolson Cox

... new sensation in it now; just steady, rather dreamy work, to keep her place in the row, to the swish-swish of the cutter and the call of the driver to his horses at the turns; with continual little pauses, to straighten and rest her back a moment, and shake her head free from the flies, or suck her finger, sore from the constant pushing of the straw ends under. So the hours went on, rather hot and wearisome, yet with a feeling of something good being done, of a job getting surely to its end. And ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... "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 ...
— The Rich Little Poor Boy • Eleanor Gates

... purifying elements of politics. The best thing that you can do with anything that is crooked is to lift it up where people can see that it is crooked, and then it will either straighten itself out or disappear. Nothing checks all the bad practices of politics like public exposure. You can't be crooked in the light. I don't know whether it has ever been tried or not; but I venture to say, purely from observation, that it can't ...
— The New Freedom - A Call For the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People • Woodrow Wilson

... trembling, and looking round fearful of what she might find about her. But when she saw only her father and the man, she tried to smile and sat up, with a little clutch at her disordered dress as if she wanted to straighten it. ...
— A King's Comrade - A Story of Old Hereford • Charles Whistler

... 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 everywhere ...
— Catholic Problems in Western Canada • George Thomas Daly

... fragrant with the dew. Maybe down by some big trees he is walking, absorbed, when all at once, some One is by his side. It's the Master. The appointment has been kept with Peter. But we must leave them alone together. Peter has some things to straighten out. That's a sacred interview meant only ...
— Quiet Talks on John's Gospel • S. D. Gordon

... without stopping or slacking the pace of his digging. He fell unconsciously to timing his movements to those of the other man, and for a time the machine became a twin-engine working beat for beat—thrust, stoop, straighten, heave; thrust, stoop, straighten, heave. Then a bullet said the indescribable word that means 'hit' and Duffy found that the other half of the machine had stopped suddenly and collapsed in a little heap. Somewhere ...
— Between the Lines • Boyd Cable

... 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 might last ...
— Spalding's Official Baseball Guide - 1913 • John B. Foster

... out of the house, and made his way to the baker's shop. He stopped at the little gate, he wanted to straighten himself out and set himself to rights.... Pyetushkov clutched at the folds of his coat with both hands, and almost pulled them out altogether.... Convulsively he twisted his tightly compressed neck, fastened the top hook of his ...
— A Desperate Character and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... whatever he feels like doing with me," she resolved, reflecting that from her father's standpoint he had a very real grievance against her. "It was a dreadful thing for him to hear me advising ma to leave him. I guess I owe it to them to try to straighten it up. But I don't believe it can ever be ...
— The Wind Before the Dawn • Dell H. Munger

... 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 had approached during the night ...
— The Centaur • Algernon Blackwood

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

... I stooped to straighten my spat. When I looked up, the servants had disappeared. I glanced through the leaves to see ...
— The Brother of Daphne • Dornford Yates

... my glasses to the man at wheel. He was crouching down over the spokes in a helpless, huddled sort of way, and even as I looked the vessel veered again, abruptly as before. I saw the helmsman straighten up and bring the wheel about with a ...
— The Moon Pool • A. Merritt

... 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 ...
— The Mule - A Treatise On The Breeding, Training, - And Uses To Which He May Be Put • Harvey Riley

... men in them days. He hadn't more'n got the words out of his mouth afore Hesden hit him. I'd no idea he could strike such a blow. Timlow was forty pounds heavier than he, but it staggered him back four or five steps, and Le Moyne follered him up, hitting just about as fast as he could straighten his arm, till he dropped. The queerest thing about it was that the horse follered right along, and when Timlow come down with his face all battered up, and Le Moyne wheeled about and started over to the Court House, the horse kept on follerin' him up to the very steps. Le Moyne went into the ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... hard to talk to daddy about it; I don't think I ever could. And you know he really could make a lot of money if he wanted to; I can tell that from the letters he gets. He doesn't answer his letters. Every month last year I used to straighten his desk, and some of last spring's bills are still there, and they haven't been paid. I know, of course, that that can't ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... 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 ...
— The One-Way Trail - A story of the cattle country • Ridgwell Cullum



Words linked to "Straighten" :   rise up, change posture, unbend, clean up, untwist, make up, bend, unwind, comb, pull up, clean, rear, draw up, channelise, modify, roll out, straighten up, square away, untwine, arrange



Copyright © 2024 e-Free Translation.com