'Straits' definitions:

Definition of 'straits'

From: WordNet
noun
A bad or difficult situation or state of affairs [syn: pass, strait, straits]
noun
A difficult juncture; "a pretty pass"; "matters came to a head yesterday" [syn: pass, head, straits]

Definition of 'Straits'

From: GCIDE
  • Strait \Strait\, n.; pl. Straits. [OE. straight, streit, OF. estreit, estroit. See Strait, a.]
  • 1. A narrow pass or passage. [1913 Webster]
  • He brought him through a darksome narrow strait To a broad gate all built of beaten gold. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • Honor travels in a strait so narrow Where one but goes abreast. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Specifically: (Geog.) A (comparatively) narrow passageway connecting two large bodies of water; -- often in the plural; as, the strait, or straits, of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the strait, or straits, of Mackinaw. [1913 Webster]
  • We steered directly through a large outlet which they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles broad. --De Foe. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.] [1913 Webster]
  • A dark strait of barren land. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt; distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in the plural; as, reduced to great straits. [1913 Webster]
  • For I am in a strait betwixt two. --Phil. i. 23. [1913 Webster]
  • Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever. --South. [1913 Webster]
  • Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts. --Broome. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'straits'

From: Moby Thesaurus