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To make strait; to make narrow; hence, to contract; to confine. Waters, when straitened, as at the falls of bridges, give a roaring noise. Bacon. In narrow circuit, straitened by a foe. Milton.

In a strait manner; narrowly; strictly; rigorously. Mark i. 43.

The quality or condition of being strait; especially, a pinched condition or situation caused by poverty; as, the straitnessof their circumstances.

To declare by acclamations. While the shouting crowd Acclaims thee king of traitors. Smollett.

Carriage; attitude; action; movement; as, the head of that portrait has a good air. Fairholt.

To become larger. [Obs.] Strait was the way at first, withouten light, But further in did further amplify. Fairfax.

Narrow; strait. [Obs.]

The act or making narrow; a straitening or contacting. Wiseman.

Behind a ship; in the rear. "A gale of wind right astern." De Foe. "Left this strait astern." Drake. To bake astern, to go stern foremost. -- To be astern of the reckoning, to be behind the position given by the reckoning. -- To drop astern, to fall or be left behind. -- To go astern, to go backward, as from the act…

, religion, or decorum; bold in wickedness; presumptuous; impudent; insolent. " Audacious traitor." Shak. " Such audacious neighborhood." Milton.

approved authority; true; trustworthy; credible; as, an authentic writer; an authentic portrait; authentic information.

To prove authentic; to determine as real and true; as, to authenticate a portrait. Walpole.

Pertaining to, or containing, autobiography; as, an autobiographical sketch. "Such traits of the autobiographic sort." Carlyle. -- Au`to*bi`o*graph"ic*al*ly, adv.

The space which is behind and subordinate to a portrait or group of figures.

To jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait, habit, characteristic, and the like. [Archaic] If they banter your regularity, order, and love of study, banter in return their neglect of them. Chatham.

A narrow passage or strait; as, the Great Belt and the Lesser Belt, leading to the Baltic Sea.

A canvas for a portrait measuring 58 by 94 inches. The half bishop measures 45 of 56.

A strait or narrow sea between two seas, or a lake and a seas; as, the Bosporus (formerly the Thracian Bosporus) or Strait of Constantinople, between the Black Sea and Sea of Marmora; the Cimmerian Bosporus, between the Black Sea and Sea of Azof. [Written also Bosphorus.]

or device. Specifically, one used as a memorial to the dead, and generally having the portrait, coat of arms, etc.

lular walls made of iron plates riveted together, as the Britannia bridge over the Menai Strait, and the Victoria bridge at Montreal. -- Wheatstone's bridge (Elec.), a device for the measurement of resistances, so called because the balance between the resistances to be measured is indicated by the absence of a curren…