strait
noun
[ streɪt ]
• a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two other large areas of water.
• "the Straits of Gibraltar"
• used in reference to a situation characterized by a specified degree of trouble or difficulty.
• "the economy is in dire straits"
Similar:
a bad/difficult situation,
a sorry condition,
difficulty,
trouble,
crisis,
a mess,
a predicament,
a plight,
a tight corner,
a pretty/fine kettle of fish,
hot water,
deep water,
a jam,
a hole,
a bind,
a fix,
a scrape,
strait
adjective
• (of a place) of limited spatial capacity; narrow or cramped.
• "the road was so strait that a handful of men might have defended it"
Origin:
Middle English: shortening of Old French estreit ‘tight, narrow’, from Latin strictus ‘drawn tight’ (see strict).
