straighten
pronunciation
How to pronounce straighten in British English:
UK [ˈstreɪtn]
How to pronounce straighten in American English:
US [ˈstretn]
-
- Verb:
- straighten up or out; make straight
- make straight
- get up from a sitting or slouching position
- put (things or places) in order
- straighten by unrolling
- make straight or straighter
Word Origin
- straighten (v.)
- 1540s (transitive), from straight (adj.1) + -en (1). Intransitive sense from 1891. Related: Straightened; straightening; straightener. The Middle English verb was simply straight (late 14c.).
Example
- 1. To straighten up , imagine that your head is touching the sky .
- 2. The operation to straighten out and puff up crooked and collapsed veins , called venoplasty , is almost identical to cardiac angioplasty-a common treatment for diseased coronary arteries .
- 3. Take a paper-clip and straighten it out .
- 4. Scale up the idea , straighten out the carousel and you have a production line with multiple printing heads .
- 5. America has a chance to straighten out not just its finances , but also the highly polarised politics that underpin them .