Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Narrow?

\Nar"row\, a. [Compar. {Narrower}; superl. {Narrowest}.] [OE. narwe, naru, AS. nearu; akin to OS. naru, naro.] 1. Of little breadth; not wide or broad; having little distance from side to side; as, a narrow board; a narrow street; a narrow hem. Hath passed in safety through the narrow seas. --Shak. 2. Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed. The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world. --Bp. Wilkins. 3. Having but a little margin; having barely sufficient space, time, or number, etc.; close; near; -- with special reference to some peril or misfortune; as, a narrow shot; a narrow escape; a narrow majority. --Dryden. 4. Limited as to means; straitened; pinching; as, narrow circumstances. 5. Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted; as, a narrow mind; narrow views. ``A narrow understanding.'' --Macaulay. 6. Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish. A very narrow and stinted charity. --Smalridge. 7. Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact. But first with narrow search I must walk round This garden, and no corner leave unspied. --Milton. 8. (Phon.) Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; -- distinguished from wide; as [=e] ([=e]ve) and [=oo] (f[=oo]d), etc., from [i^] ([i^]ll) and [oo^] (f[oo^]t), etc. See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 13. Note: Narrow is not unfrequently prefixed to words, especially to participles and adjectives, forming compounds of obvious signification; as, narrow-bordered, narrow-brimmed, narrow-breasted, narrow-edged, narrow-faced, narrow-headed, narrow-leaved, narrow-pointed, narrow-souled, narrow-sphered, etc. {Narrow gauge}. (Railroad) See Note under {Gauge}, n., 6.
\Nar"row\, n.; pl. {Narrows}. A narrow passage; esp., a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water; -- usually in the plural; as, The Narrows of New York harbor. Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow. --Gladstone.
\Nar"row\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Narrowed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Narrowing}.] [AS. nearwian.] 1. To lessen the breadth of; to contract; to draw into a smaller compass; to reduce the width or extent of. --Sir W. Temple. 2. To contract the reach or sphere of; to make less liberal or more selfish; to limit; to confine; to restrict; as, to narrow one's views or knowledge; to narrow a question in discussion. Our knowledge is much more narrowed if we confine ourselves to our own solitary reasonings. --I. Watts. 3. (Knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
\Nar"row\, v. i. 1. To become less broad; to contract; to become narrower; as, the sea narrows into a strait. 2. (Man.) Not to step out enough to the one hand or the other; as, a horse narrows. --Farrier's Dict. 3. (Knitting) To contract the size of a stocking or other knit article, by taking two stitches into one.