straiten
Pinch someone's resources
Straiten means to make narrow or restrictive, or to put into difficulty—usually financial.
The past participle straitened appears most often: straitened circumstances means reduced means or poverty.
The word connects to strait in its sense of narrow or constricted, not straight.
Rarely used outside fixed phrases.
Of small width
- squeezeFirm bilateral compression
- compressReduce volume by force
- tightenMake more secure
- crampPainful muscle seizure
pinch · choke · throttle · strangle · strangulate · suffocate · stifle · bind
Suffering from difficult circumstances
- povertySevere lack of resources
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
- scarcityInsufficiency of something needed
- shortageDeficient supply of necessities
insufficiency · deficit · paucity · want · penury · indigence · destitution · privation
narrow
Of small width
cramp · pinch · choke · throttle · strangle · strangulate · suffocate · stifle · bind · clench
hardship
Suffering from difficult circumstances
- povertySevere lack of resources
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
- scarcityInsufficiency of something needed
shortage · insufficiency · deficit · paucity · want · penury · indigence · destitution · privation · need
constrain
To limit or restrict
curtail · restrain · circumscribe · bound · hem in · box in · cramp · handicap · inhibit · impede
- dire straitsSevere hardship or peril
- strait jacketGarment immobilizing the arms
- in dire straits
- Strait of MagellanChannel linking two oceans
- Strait of GibraltarChannel linking two seas
- Bering StraitChannel linking two oceans
strait, straits, straitlaced, straitjacket, straitened, straitens