straitening
Narrowing the circumstances
Straitening is making narrow, tight, or restricted.
The word appears most often in the phrase straitened circumstances, meaning financial hardship—as if one's means have been squeezed or confined.
The participle comes from strait in its older sense of narrow or constricted, not the body of water.
Reduction in width
- tighteningMaking less loose
- squeezingPressing inward firmly
- compressingForcing into less space
- confiningLimiting freedom of movement
restricting · constraining · limiting · binding · cramping · pinching · contracting · shrinking
Severe difficulty or suffering
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
- privationLack of necessities
- distressSevere anxiety or suffering
- tribulationState of great distress
penury · want · indigence · destitution · impoverishment · suffering · difficulty · pauperism
Reducing expenditures deliberately
- frugalityEconomical resource management
- cutbacksReductions in spending
- retrenchmentReduction of expenditures
- economizingReducing expenditures deliberately
thriftiness · prudence · restraint · downsizing · rationing · scrimping · penny-pinching · tightening
narrowing
Reduction in width
- tighteningMaking less loose
- squeezingPressing inward firmly
- compressingForcing into less space
confining · restricting · constraining · limiting · binding · cramping · pinching · contracting · shrinking · choking
adversity
Severe difficulty or suffering
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
- privationLack of necessities
- distressSevere anxiety or suffering
tribulation · penury · want · indigence · destitution · impoverishment · suffering · difficulty · pauperism · insolvency
belt-tightening
Reducing expenditures deliberately
- frugalityEconomical resource management
- cutbacksReductions in spending
- retrenchmentReduction of expenditures
economizing · thriftiness · prudence · restraint · downsizing · rationing · scrimping · penny-pinching · tightening · parsimony
straiteningwidening
Increasing in extent
broadening · expanding · loosening · opening · enlarging
straiteningenriching
Adding worth or nutrients
prospering · flourishing · thriving · easing · alleviating
stress, stretch, strict, district, restrict, straighten, strait, constrict, straightened