straighten

[streyt-n]

verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

to make or become straight in direction, form, position, character, conduct, condition, etc. (often followed by up or out).

Origin:
1535–45; straight + -en¹

Related forms

straight·en·er, noun

o·ver·straight·en, verb

pre·straight·en, verb (used with object)

re·straight·en, verb

un·straight·ened, adjective

EXPAND

well-straight·ened, adjective

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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chat, to converse

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

straighten (ˈstreɪt^ən)

—vb (sometimes foll by up or out)
1.	to make or become straight
2.	(tr) to make neat or tidy: straighten your desk

'straightener

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Related Words

unbend clean conk drawing frame drift

extensor peen uncurl untangle warp

Matching Quote

"They are light and shapely vessels, calculated for rapid and rocky streams, and to be carried over long portages on men's shoulders, from twenty to thirty feet long, and only four or four and a half wide, sharp at both ends like a canoe, though broadest forward on the bottom, and reaching seven or eight feet over the water, in order that they may slip over rocks as gently as possible. They are made very slight, only two boards to a side, commonly secured to a few light maple or other hard-wood knees, but inward are of the clearest and widest white pine stuff, of which there is a great waste on account of their form, for the bottom is left perfectly flat, not only from side to side, but from end to end. Sometimes they become "hogging" even, after long use, and the boatmen then turn them over and straighten them by a weight at each end. They told us that one wore out in two years, or often in a single trip, and sold for from fourteen to sixteen dollars."

-Henry David Thoreau