straighten

From straight +‎ -en. Compare Scots strauchten (“to straighten”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹeɪtn̩/
• Hyphenation: straight‧en

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtən

straighten (third-person singular simple present straightens, present participle straightening, simple past and past participle straightened)

1. (transitive) To cause to become straight.
2. (intransitive) To become straight.
3. (transitive) To put in order; to sort; to tidy up.

   to straighten one's affairs, or an account

   • 2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Tuilagi and Ashton started in lively fashion, centre Tuilagi doing what he does best, straightening and bursting into the line, and Ashton always looking to leave his wing and get involved in the action.

4. (transitive) To clarify a situation or concept to (an audience).
5. (transitive, slang) To bribe or corrupt.
6. (intransitive) To stand up, especially from a sitting position.
7. (transitive, informal) To make heterosexual.
   • 1973 December 22, Satya, “It Is Not We Who Must Change”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 27, page 3:

     It has been said that to survive in this Wasp society, Blacks must straighten their hair, Jews must straighten their noses, and Gays must straighten themselves. But we will no longer tolerate being straightened. It is the doctors and the straight society who must change.

   • 2006 December 31, Isabel Oakeshott, Chris Gourlay, “Science Told: Hands Off Gay Sheep”, in The Sunday Times:

     It raises the prospect that pregnant women could one day be offered a treatment to reduce or eliminate the chance that their offspring will be homosexual. Experts say that, in theory, the "straightening" procedure on humans could be as simple as a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn on the skin like an anti-smoking nicotine patch.

• straiten

• astringeth, shattering