STRAIT Copy link • STRAIT 1. adj., Vid. NARROW, DIFFICULT. 2. s. A narrow part of the sea, fretum: euripus (the former the common and pure Latin word; the latter borrowed from the Greek; with the Greeks and Romans, also especially the straits between Euboea and Boeotia, now Golfo di Negroponte): fauces angustae or artae (a narrow channel); sometimes bosporus (e.g., bosporus Thracius, Cimmerius). The straits of Gibraltar, fretum Gaditanum or Herculeum. Difficulty, Vid: STRAIT-WAISTCOAT, to put in a strait-waistcoat, constringere aliquem (Cic.). Ought not you to have a strait-waistcoat put on you? tu mentis es compos? tu non constringendus? (Cic., Phil., 2, 38, 97).