From Middle English streit, from Anglo-Norman estreit, Old
French estreit (modern form étroit), from Latin strictus,
perfect passive participle of stringō (compress, tighten).
Doublet of strict.    strait (comparative straiter, superlative
straitest)    1. (archaic) Narrow; restricted as to space or
room; close.     • Emerson       too strait and low our cottage
doors     • 1866, Algernon Swinburne, Aholibah, lines 53-55
Sweet oil was poured out on thy head       And ran down like
cool rain between       The strait close locks it melted in.
• 1900, Ernest Dowson, To One in Bedlam, lines 3-5       Those
scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line       His strait,
caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,       Pedant and
pitiful.   2. (archaic) Righteous, strict.     to follow the
strait and narrow     • Shakespeare       some certain edicts
and some strait decrees     • Bible, Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.)
the straitest sect of our religion   3. (obsolete) Tight; close;
tight-fitting.   4.