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Straighten   /strˈeɪtən/   Listen
Straighten

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



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"Straighten" Quotes from Famous Books



... had made her happy; that was all that was vital just now. At a later time, when she had stopped brooding over the thing and could see and discuss it intelligently, he would take her quietly and straighten the whole matter ...
— Queed • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... the circus," he explained. "There's a bad hitch in this business. Hope to straighten it out, but we'll have to get right at it. Come to Billy Blow's tent. I want to have a private talk ...
— Andy the Acrobat • Peter T. Harkness

... then as he caught Poole's eye he had to turn his back, looking out through the slit in the window and biting his tongue hard the while, while he heard the carpenter maunder on to the President something more about not having a bit of stuff, and every nail to straighten before he could drive ...
— Fitz the Filibuster • George Manville Fenn

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

... back at her. "I can't tell her now that Pick is not what I'm stewing over," he said to himself, "and I can't tell her any time, either, for Charlotte has heard something that makes her think Polly is bothered by her being here. I must just fuss at it myself till I straighten it out." ...
— Five Little Peppers Grown Up • Margaret Sidney

... Rip's face. The snapper-boat slewed wildly as the Connie shot took effect. Rip worked his controls frantically, trying to straighten the rocket out more ...
— Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet • Harold Leland Goodwin

... he said to Johnny, who came up in the evening to help him straighten out the stock, "how trade is picking up. Yesterday I made but ...
— Cabbages and Kings • O. Henry

... not been in such a 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 ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair

... 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

... work now. I have certainly been a fortnight over this Romance, sometimes five hours a day; and yet it is about my usual length - eight pages or so, and would be a d-d sight the better for another curry. But I do not think I can honestly re-write it all; so I call it done, and shall only straighten ...
— The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 1 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... here in the valleys. Something human I needed, in your coming. Go back now. Nothing will be done until the morning. We've had to shoot Austrian spies all day. Caught 'em red-handed. I feel red-handed, too. Go back, and before to-morrow morning I'll get an order over to straighten him out from the others— before final action is taken. Maybe I'll look him over myself. Good night.... Oh, I ...
— Red Fleece • Will Levington Comfort

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

... scrimmage, the Swiss having decidedly the worst of the trouble. The chief rushed up the plank; Lorns and the descendant of Tell and Winkelried, were torn apart; and then a double din of explanation ensued. After ten minutes, the chief was able to straighten out the difficulty—whatever its pretended cause might be I know not; for I held myself warily aloof, not a little alarmed by what Lorns had communicated—and repaired again to his station upon the wharf. As he came down the ...
— The Onlooker, Volume 1, Part 2 • Various

... chest of drawers, but you're not," retorted Betty, sharply; and when Petunia had gone out and closed the door after her, she pulled out her things and began to straighten rapidly, rolling up her ribbons with shaking fingers, and carefully folding her clothes into compact squares. Ever since her childhood she had always begun to work at her chest of drawers when any sudden shock unnerved her. After a great ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow

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

... case, and here's a plain way out of it. You can set yourself right and have everything looked after as it ought to be, in twenty-four hours. We've talked to Cynthy—that's Mrs. Mumpson—and she takes a sight of interest. She'd do well by you and straighten things out, and you might do a plaguey sight worse than give her the right to take care of ...
— He Fell in Love with His Wife • Edward P. Roe

... will disturb his rest, until he will pay me back my money to get peace and quiet." The physician bade him to desist from his evil practices, under threats of dire punishment; and then went to the farmer and made him straighten out the financial dispute between the two. Thereafter, there was no ...
— Clairvoyance and Occult Powers • Swami Panchadasi

... If only the positions were reversed. Then it would be too easy. As things are, it's a deadlock. And I love him so, Uncle John. I suppose you couldn't possibly come. I have a feeling that you would straighten things out. ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates

... Aunt Olivia's fluttering nervousness at all. Peggy and I laughed more than was good for us those days. It was so funny to see Aunt Olivia hovering anxiously around, picking up flower stems, and smoothing out tidies, and generally following him about to straighten out things. Once she even got a wing and dustpan and swept the cigar ashes ...
— Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... freshness: how she used to dodge the rotary movement made by his pince-nez while he always awkwardly, and kindly, and often funnily, talked—it had once hit her rather badly in the eye; how she used to pull down and straighten his waistcoat, making it set a little better, a thing of a sort her mother never did; how friendly and familiar she must have been with him for that, or else a forward little minx; how she felt almost capable of doing it again now, just to sound the right note, ...
— The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1 • Various

... smoke, Roger would take the milk and rolls back to the kitchen and give Bock a morning greeting. Bock would emerge from his literary kennel, and thrust out his forelegs in a genial obeisance. This was partly politeness, and partly to straighten out his spine after its all-night curvature. Then Roger would let him out into the back yard for a run, himself standing on the kitchen steps to inhale the bright freshness of ...
— The Haunted Bookshop • Christopher Morley

... he tried to push himself farther into the wall in order to occupy less space in the hall. For fully ten minutes the boys stood there, first on one foot and then on the other, like motherless chickens in a rain-storm, and then the turning of the handle of the door caused them to straighten up into what they intended should be careless attitudes, which should say that they had intended to go right away, but had been delayed by the discussion of some important question. It was Paul who came out of the ...
— Left Behind - or, Ten Days a Newsboy • James Otis

... our 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 ...
— The Lone Wolf - A Melodrama • Louis Joseph Vance

... although she was no smoker, immediately picked up the cigarette-end and began to straighten it, talking ...
— The Awakening - The Resurrection • Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy

... 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 ...
— A Kentucky Cardinal • James Lane Allen

... stout cloth from hip to heel. He swung far to the other side and wrenched back the reins. With stiff-braced legs the stallion slid to a halt that flung his unbalanced rider forward along his neck. Before he could straighten himself in the saddle, the horse roared and came down on rigid forelegs, yet by a miracle Woodbury clung, sprawled down the side of the monster, to be sure, ...
— Trailin'! • Max Brand

... on thy bonnet an' shawl, An' straighten thy cap an' thy hair; I's really beginnin' to stall(1) To see thee sit dazzin'(2) i' ...
— Yorkshire Dialect Poems • F.W. Moorman

... twinkling eyes at his son's straight, silent figure in the corner. "You've had about enough theology, I presume? No ambition to be a preacher? This winter I mean to turn the farm over to you and give you a chance to straighten things out. You've been dissatisfied with the way the place is run for some time, haven't you? Go ahead and put new blood into it. New ideas, if you want to; I've no objection. They're expensive, but let it go. You can fire Dan ...
— One of Ours • Willa Cather

... together want some one to make a stir for you." Which office Mr. Linden took upon himself—lightly disengaging the collar, and then going to the window to draw up the shade and throw back the shutters, stopping on his way back to straighten the table cover, and followed by a full gush of sunlight from ...
— Say and Seal, Volume II • Susan Warner

... enough there for your immediate needs. Later you can straighten things up. Shall I send ...
— The Easiest Way - A Story of Metropolitan Life • Eugene Walter and Arthur Hornblow

... of about two thousand feet, then let the Sky-Bird straighten out in the direction of their next stop. He opened up the throttle little by little, and the machine rapidly gained momentum. But somehow the young pilot was dissatisfied. Finally he hitched the stick over to the ...
— Around the World in Ten Days • Chelsea Curtis Fraser

... and Uncle Hiram and Uncle Jabez were pulling sticks in a corner while the other men sat tipped against the wall watching and making playful comments—all save my Uncle Peabody, who was trying to touch his head to the floor and then straighten up with the aid ...
— The Light in the Clearing • Irving Bacheller

... ME. We'll fix all that. I heard something about your being in disgrace, but the story was that you were sweet on some secesh girl down there, and neglected your business, Kla'uns. But, Lordy! to think it was only your own wife! Never mind; we'll straighten that out. We've had worse jobs than that on. Why, there was that commissary who was buying up dead horses at one end of the field, and selling them to the Government for mess beef at the other; and there was that general who wouldn't make an ...
— Clarence • Bret Harte

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

... were transferred to her deck. But who shall describe the harrowing scene! The dhow seemed a very nest of black ants, it was so crowded, and the sailors, who had to perform the duty of removing the slaves, were nearly suffocated by the horrible stench. Few of the slaves could straighten themselves after their long confinement. Indeed some of them were unable to stand for days afterwards, and many died on board the 'Firefly' before they reached a harbour of refuge and freedom. Those ...
— Black Ivory • R.M. Ballantyne

... minute," she said and began to straighten out the papers on her desk. Even to Rimrock Jones, who was far from systematic, it was evident that she knew her work. Every paper was put back in its special envelope, and when Abercrombie Jepson came in from his office she had the ...
— Rimrock Jones • Dane Coolidge

... to carry out a "minor operation" in conjunction with the 1st Division on their right. The Australians had pushed forward considerably on the left, and the line now bent back sharply, where the troops we had relieved had been held up by the village of Pontruet. The attack was planned both to straighten out the line and to get possession of the high ground on the right. The 138th Brigade, who had taken over from the Australians on the left, were ordered to capture the village of Pontruet, and for this purpose detailed the 5th Leicesters. The attack was to be carried ...
— The Sherwood Foresters in the Great War 1914 - 1919 - History of the 1/8th Battalion • W.C.C. Weetman

... she said, looking up for a moment to straighten her back, "are you sorry I made you ...
— Soldiers of the Queen • Harold Avery

... one easily discouraged. During ten minutes more he continued his efforts, now moving the stick to and fro, and again giving to it an up-and-down motion, and then, at the very moment when all hope had fled from my heart, I saw the man straighten himself suddenly, as he shaded his eyes with ...
— The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley • James Otis

... the hand to the shoulder; straighten and hold the arm horizontally, thrusting it in ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss

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

... the house is awful, and at night I imagine that I hear him outside whining to come in. Many a cold night have I been up two and three times to straighten his bed and cover him up. His bed was the skin of a young buffalo, and he knew just when it was smooth and nice, and then he would almost throw himself down, with a sigh of perfect content. If I did not cover him at once, he would get up and drop down again, and there he would stay hours at a time ...
— Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888 • Frances M.A. Roe

... natural to Dan. This sister of his had always lent a hand when he needed it. Of course he would accept her help, and let the future, the glorious, inexhaustible future straighten out the account between them. He did not express himself even in his inmost thoughts in any such high-flown manner as this. He simply gave an Indian war-whoop, administered to Polly a portentous hug, and declared for the hundredth time, "Polly, ...
— A Bookful of Girls • Anna Fuller

... his spacesuit, and, by hammering with the sole of one of the boots, managed to straighten out the dent in the back of the helmet. He put the suit back on, then looked doubtfully at the control board. It wouldn't do to go on pulling things at random; he might cause some damage. Tentatively, ...
— The Worshippers • Damon Francis Knight

... "Straighten up. Put some of your weight in them stirrups. D'you think any hoss can buck up when it's carrying a ...
— The Rangeland Avenger • Max Brand

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

... practical help, I fear, though I do sincerely hope that your father's affairs will straighten themselves ...
— The Vanishing Man • R. Austin Freeman

... gwine, you triflin' huzzy, you!" exclaimed Uncle Remus. "You better go git yo' Jim Crow kyard en straighten out dem wrops in yo' ha'r. I allers year w'ite folks say you better keep yo' eye on niggers w'at got der ha'r wrop up in strings. Now I done gun you ...
— Nights With Uncle Remus - Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation • Joel Chandler Harris

... this, in order that she could have a chance to straighten things in his cabin while she was tidying her tree for the winter, and could so make one day's work serve for two. For the dryad of an oak-tree has large responsibilities, what with the care of so many dead leaves all winter, ...
— Jurgen - A Comedy of Justice • James Branch Cabell

... 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

... duck your head between with your arms, forming an arch above, your ears covered by your arms. Lock your thumbs together to keep your hands from separating when they strike the water. Bend your knees slightly and spring from them, but straighten them immediately so that you will be stretched full length as you enter the water. As soon as your body is in the water curve your back inward, lift your head up, and make a curve through the ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... bordering streets were tangled with traffic. A distant crowd of milling people heightened the turmoil. The northern edge was deserted, but in a large semicircle was spread a fear-struck, panicky mob. A single policeman, his face white and his eyes wide, tried to straighten out the tangle of vehicles, but it was infinitely beyond him and he sent in a riot call; and as the giant with the kind, dignified face loomed silently higher than the trees in the Square, and ever higher, a dozen blue-coated figures ...
— A Scientist Rises • Desmond Winter Hall

... steel above the critical temperature and quenching in oil to harden the steel through to the center; (2) reheating for drawing of temper for the purpose of meeting the physical specifications; (3) reheating to meet the machine ability test for production purposes; and (4) reheating to straighten ...
— The Working of Steel - Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel • Fred H. Colvin

... twinkled in striped stockings. Her shoes were of the sort called "Watteau." And her heels were of the height at which men shudder, and ask themselves (in contemplating an otherwise lovable woman), "Can this charming person straighten ...
— Man and Wife • Wilkie Collins

... from this kind of sorting and shifting, I straighten up and look about me again. Ah! The phlox! Time ...
— More Jonathan Papers • Elisabeth Woodbridge

... I'll do; I'm goin' on up to my brother—he's got a prune orchard a little ways out from San Jose, an' he's well fixed. Now I'll write out an order on my brother, fer him to send you the money. He's good fer it, an' he'll do it. I'm goin' on up to help him work his place on shares, so I c'n straighten up with ...
— Casey Ryan • B. M. Bower

... bring 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 you ...
— Punch, Or the London Charivari, Volume 101, November 21, 1891 • Various

... boy, whether 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 I haf ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... a small cloud on their horizon. Although they found the interior of their palace car, the porter, and the passengers, fascinating, and the luncheon an endless feast, they both felt that before they slept they must straighten things out; hence ...
— What Two Children Did • Charlotte E. Chittenden

... trail fer slippin'. Say, speakin' metaphoric, that feller got the drop on pore Joe. He give him a dose o' syllables in the pit o' the stummick that made him curl, then he follered it right up wi' a couple o' slugs o' his choicest, 'fore he could straighten up. Then he sort o' picked him up an' shook him with a power o' langwidge, an' sot him down like a spanked kid. Then he clouted him over both lugs with a shower o' words wi' capitals, clumped him over the head wi' a bunch o' texts, an' thrashed him wi' a fact'ry o' trac' papers. Say, I ...
— The Night Riders - A Romance of Early Montana • Ridgwell Cullum

... 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 ...
— The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island • Johann David Wyss

... was split with a rattling volley of rifle-shots. Hawes sighed, made an effort to straighten himself, and collapsed. Wertz went over on an elbow with drooping head. He choked a little, and a dark stream flowed from his mouth. And Sigmund, the Golden-Haired, his throat a-gurgle with the song, threw up his arms ...
— The God of His Fathers • Jack London

... has in it some element of love; all love contains a desire for peace. One immediate effect of new happiness, new love, is to make us turn toward the past with a wish to straighten out its difficulties, heal its breaches, forgive its wrongs. We think most hopefully of distressing things which may still be remedied, most regretfully of others that have passed beyond our reach ...
— The Reign of Law - A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields • James Lane Allen

... your wheat good-bye. It'll be beat into the ground too hard ever to straighten." He laid an arm about Wallie's shoulder and there was a sympathy in his ...
— The Dude Wrangler • Caroline Lockhart

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

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

... Warren offers. I would like to have a record of his voice, and that of some of his friends. There is a difference between the telephone voice and that heard face to face,—you would be a good witness if I could persuade him to sing or speak for me into a record. You can straighten out the difficulties of this case, if you will, ...
— The Voice on the Wire • Eustace Hale Ball

... Dominican government, but it was coolly pocketed by the principal agent, who claimed it as a set-off against alleged damages in connection with a concession he had near Samana. In the ten years of anarchy that followed in Santo Domingo no attempt was made to straighten out the matter. The bonds having gone into default in 1872 dropped lower and lower until they reached 3 per cent ...
— Santo Domingo - A Country With A Future • Otto Schoenrich

... have been," 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 do anything or ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish

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

... Osvif's sons and Gudlaug set on Kjartan, they being five together, and Kjartan and An but two. An warded himself valiantly, and would ever be going in front of Kjartan. Bolli stood aloof with Footbiter. Kjartan smote hard, but his sword was of little avail (and bent so), he often had to straighten it under his foot. In this attack both the sons of Osvif and An were wounded, but Kjartan had no wound as yet. Kjartan fought so swiftly and dauntlessly that Osvif's sons recoiled and turned to where An was. At that moment ...
— Laxdaela Saga - Translated from the Icelandic • Anonymous

... had intentionally kept in the rear, to straighten out any little hitch or to encourage a man with a broken sledge, and to see that everything was in good marching order. Now I took my proper place in the lead. Though I held myself in check, I felt the keenest exhilaration, and even exultation, ...
— The North Pole - Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club • Robert E. Peary

... Scripture to serve a double purpose, foreshadow the characteristics of history for the centuries since its writing, plainly its first meaning has to do with the time when "the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." The King is coming back to straighten matters out, and organize a new running of things. This is the church's surprise, and a great surprise it will apparently be to a great many folks, though ...
— Quiet Talks about Jesus • S. D. Gordon

... we saw plenty of Ku Kluxers but they never bothered nobody on our plantation. They allus seemed to be havin' heaps of fun. 'Course, they did have to straighten out some of them brash young nigger bucks on some of the other farms round about. Mos' of the niggers the Ku Kluxers got atter was'n on no farm, but was jus' roamin' 'round talkin' too much and ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration

... going to find out what the trouble is and straighten it out if I can. Please don't tell that to any one, Ruth. I don't imagine it's anything serious. Eleanor always ...
— Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School - or The Parting of the Ways • Jessie Graham Flower

... bit of it!" declared Molly; "if I only had a decent broom instead of this old stub! Now, I'll sweep, Mopsy, and you find something that'll do for a duster, and we'll straighten up the place ...
— Marjorie's Vacation • Carolyn Wells

... out," he explained. "When I get it laid, I'll have to get another. I'll straighten the pile when I ...
— The Weakling • Everett B. Cole

... make it shorter!" Then he would put his hands in his pockets, and stretch himself, and straighten the lines of his face, over which a smile would come, as though this intimation from his editor were the best joke in the world; and he would walk away, with his heart bleeding, and every nerve in an agony. There are none of us who want to have ...
— Thackeray • Anthony Trollope

... Tully, "that's all right, if that's it. That'll all straighten out with time. It was natural perhaps she should fire up at the talk about marryin' if she felt the bridegroom was hangin' back. Why, Joe,—he'd eat the dirt she treads on, if he couldn't make her like him no other way! ...
— In Exile and Other Stories • Mary Hallock Foote

... for the race, had faced the river. Mrs. Zane had seen him start suddenly, straighten up and for a moment stand like a statue. Her exclamation drew he attention of the others to ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

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

... on the third ballot. Farwell was about my office a good deal during the convention. When the third ballot was taken, and I had not been nominated, I said: "Farwell, there is something wrong upstairs; I wish you would go up and straighten it out." ...
— Fifty Years of Public Service • Shelby M. Cullom

... the word, then get up on all fours, but don't straighten up till you feel the trunk about you. We'll make a showman of you before you ...
— The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings • Edgar B. P. Darlington

... to a series of spouting volcanoes that leaped from the ground about the gun itself. Another German shell fell in front of the battery and a good 200 yards nearer to it. A movement below attracted the colonel's attention, and he saw the huddled teams straighten out and canter hard towards the guns. He turned his glasses on the German gun again, and could not restrain a cry of delight as he saw it collapsed and lying on its side, while high-explosive shells still ...
— Action Front • Boyd Cable (Ernest Andrew Ewart)

... enough to make the same speech to Tom Latimer. Then he will follow Paul's example: be filled with ambition to go back to Pebbly Pit and straighten out that ...
— Polly's Business Venture • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... to lunch with them at the Red House, but insisted on going home first to straighten up and make himself presentable. So they led him to the Avenue, and set his face straight down it, and bade him follow his nose and turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, and then they turned off through the fields by their own short-cut, ...
— Pearl of Pearl Island • John Oxenham

... twenty-four, from a simple weaver, had been called into the office of his employer to help straighten out the accounts. He tried storekeeping, but with indifferent success. Then it seems he was employed by the Board of Excise on a similar task. Finally he was given a position in the Excise. This position he might have held indefinitely, and been ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 9 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers • Elbert Hubbard

... drew a quivering breath. Then he whipped off his old hat and beat the dust from it carefully. With his left hand he caught the right sleeve, wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with his fingers. He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the purple bloom to beat the dust from his shoulders and limbs. The Boss, busy over his report, was, nevertheless, vaguely alive ...
— Freckles • Gene Stratton-Porter

... surprise my right hand had involuntarily sought it out. Now, I was not much of a shot, and yet in a moment I made my mind up what I would do. I would, under cover of the coats, which I clutched to me, fire my piece through my pocket at Jensen, trusting to God to straighten the aim and guide the bullet. In that moment I took all the chances. If I hit Jensen, who was somewhat exposed to me where I stood, all would be well. If I missed him and he at once killed Marjorie, or if, missing him, I myself wounded or killed Marjorie, I knew that at ...
— Marjorie • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... he sees, has a violent attack, then gets over it just as quickly. You are an entirely new type to him, so I suppose his attack this time will be a little more prolonged. He'll make violent love to you behind my back or before my face, but you mustn't mind him. I understand, and I'll straighten him out when ...
— Revelations of a Wife - The Story of a Honeymoon • Adele Garrison

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

... of will power Eph managed to straighten his face by the time that the lieutenant overtook them. They entered a cab. By this time the young naval officers were beginning to understand that it is the usual custom to go ...
— The Submarine Boys for the Flag - Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam • Victor G. Durham

... to his father. Nanette Stein afterward married Andreas Streicher, who was Schiller's companion in his flight to Franconia. As Frau Streicher she became Beethoven's faithful friend and frequently took it upon herself to straighten out his domestic affairs.) ...
— Mozart: The Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his own Words • Friedrich Kerst and Henry Edward Krehbiel

... give me a back—but put your head close to the stem of the tree." Joseph was about to speak, but Braesig pressed down his head, saying: "Hold your tongue, Joseph—put your head nearer the tree." He then stepped on his back, and when standing there firmly, said: "Now straighten yourself—It does exactly!" Then seizing the lower branch with both hands, Braesig pulled himself up into the tree. Joseph had never spoken all this time but now he ventured to remark: "But, Braesig, they're not nearly ripe yet." "What a duffer you are, Joseph," said Braesig, thrusting his red ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various

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

... would he be clever enough for Webb? And yet, if Webb had not been able to detect the frauds that juggled along under his nose, how should Webb be a match for him, who had thus detected them? It would certainly be to Webb's interest to keep this quiet till they could straighten it all out. Then they could divide what the president would have got. And nobody would be a penny the poorer. It was absurd to call it a crime—if the event proved successful. And it would be more than absurd to refuse him the reasonable amount he would ask for: their gain would far exceed his, ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon

... in, 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

... at every dizzy, dwindling second—death knotted up and racketing, so imminent that he wouldn't have time to straighten himself out or let go of his toboggan before he would be tossed out ...
— The Dark Tower • Phyllis Bottome

... day. Officers from both ships were landed and escorted to the chateau, where joy reigned supreme, notwithstanding the fact that the grandchildren of the old men of the island were morally certain that their cause was lost. The British captain undertook to straighten out matters on the island. He consented to leave a small detachment of marines in the town to protect Chase and the bank, and he promised the head men of the village, whom he had brought aboard the ship, that no mercy would be shown if he ...
— The Man From Brodney's • George Barr McCutcheon

... eyes a breath and say "God bless And keep all safe at home, and aid us win," Then straighten as the bugle sounds "Right, Dress...." Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! ...
— New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 2, May, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... inconsistent in some respects, I must admit; but if we will only be patient, and not allow prejudice to color our judgment, everything will straighten out," replied Mr. Hayden, smiling. "You notice Marion is careful to warn me not to judge hastily. She knows how I am in religious matters, always insisting on the one interpretation. But I am growing some, I hope, so I trust ...
— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson

... hadn't forgotten his early training either, for when he came to the "turn," his head and tail came up, his eye brightened, and, with a playful movement of his huge body, and without the least hint from the deacon, he swung himself and the cumbrous old sleigh into line, and began to straighten himself for the ...
— The Busted Ex-Texan and Other Stories • W. H. H. Murray

... cloak and sat up a trifle straighten "Three future refugees!" he exclaimed. "The world moves! You want to be pushing me away already, do you? Sit down, I'll ...
— Historic Boyhoods • Rupert Sargent Holland

... get to work with her. I'll straighten her out all I can, dearie; don't worry." Mrs. Adams patted her daughter's shoulder encouragingly. "Now YOU can't do another thing, and if you don't run and begin dressing you won't be ready. It'll only take me a minute to dress, myself, and I'll be down long before ...
— Alice Adams • Booth Tarkington

... when they have acted thus. They straighten out the character and the morals of their children as they formerly straightened their legs ...
— Spontaneous Activity in Education • Maria Montessori

... of the Committee in striving to straighten out this formidable tangle of business affairs led to their issuing a series of rulings, which were binding upon all members of the Exchange. These rulings were sent over the "Ticker" whenever they ...
— The New York Stock Exchange in the Crisis of 1914 • Henry George Stebbins Noble

... 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 it, Dan?—say yes," ...
— Cudjo's Cave • J. T. Trowbridge

... to San Augustine," he warned himself. "Can't put it off a minute longer because the meeting is on there day after to-morrow, and it won't wait until I can tell Mary Allen all about it! But if I don't straighten this matter out so that hereafter I can at least write her, or send her a wire, I'm no organizer at all and my chance with the Sayers Company isn't worth ...
— Mixed Faces • Roy Norton

... superior smile at the curiosity and wonder exhibited, but even those who had never seen the like were cautious about letting their surprise appear. Especially in the presence of fashion and wealth would the independent American citizen straighten his backbone, reassuring himself that he was as good as anybody. To be sure, people flew to windows when the elegant equipage dashed by, and everybody found frequent occasion to drive or walk past the Peacock Inn. It was only ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... If, however, it sprang from an inborn taste, and was the first indication of a hitherto undeveloped talent forcing itself to the surface, the situation was one demanding the greatest caution. Twigs like Oliver bent at the wrong time might never straighten out again. ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith

... This marriage must not fall through now. The grand duke will not care to become the laughing-stock of Europe. The prince's advice is for you to go about your affairs as usual. Only one man must be taken into your confidence, and that man is Herbeck. If any one can straighten out his end of the tangle it is he. He is a big man, of fertile invention; he will understand. If this thing falls through his honors will fall with it. He will work toward peace, though from what I have learned the duke ...
— The Goose Girl • Harold MacGrath

... Jim and I listened to see what we could hear, but all I could hear was somebody moving around inside like whoever it was was in a hurry—like maybe there had been some things on the floor and they were in a hurry to straighten up the room or the house on ...
— Shenanigans at Sugar Creek • Paul Hutchens

... 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 in darkness during ...
— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin

... the current gathers itself for the final plunge, and although, at the last moment, the Rouletta seemed about to straighten herself out and take the rapids head on, some malign influence checked her swing and she lunged over quarteringly ...
— The Winds of Chance • Rex Beach

... when she first appeared. But she had seemed to be quite indifferent. She had refused Orsino's pressing offer to bring her into relations with his mother, whose influence would have been enough to straighten a reputation far more doubtful than Maria Consuelo's, and she had almost wilfully thrown herself into a sort of intimacy ...
— Don Orsino • F. Marion Crawford



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



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