straighten
/ˈstɹeɪtn̩/ verb B2- To cause to become straight.
- To become straight.
- To put in order; to sort; to tidy up. · to straighten one's affairs· straighten one's account
- To clarify a situation or concept to (an audience).
- To bribe or corrupt.
- To stand up, especially from a sitting position.
- To make heterosexual.
He/she/it straightens · Past straightened · Past participle straightened · -ing form straightening
Verb forms
- Base form
- straighten
- He/she/it
- straightens
- Past
- straightened
- Past participle
- straightened
- -ing form
- straightening
From the library
The poor little thing was snorting like a steam-engine when she caught it, and kept doubling itself up and straightening itself out again, so that altogether, for the first minute or two, it was as much as she could do to hold it.
The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it _would_ twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.
“Oh, Marilla!” Anne straightened to her knees and clasped her hands.
And when the tinsmiths came, bringing with them all their tools in baskets, she inquired, “Can you straighten out those dents in the Tin Woodman, and bend him back into shape again, and solder him together where he is broken?”
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