Narrow
Narrow (nar"ro) , adjective
[Old English narwe, naru, Anglo-Saxon nearu; akin to Old Saxon 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.
2.
Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.
3.
Having but a little margin; having barely sufficient space, time, or number, etc.; close; near{5}; -- with special reference to some peril or misfortune; as, a narrow shot; a narrow escape; a narrow miss; 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.
6.
Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
A very narrow and stinted charity.
7.
Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
But first with narrow search I must walk round
This garden, and no corner leave unspied.
8.
(Phonetics) 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 ē (ēve) and o (fod), etc., from i (ill) and o (fot), etc. See Guide to Pronunciation, §13.
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.
Collocations (1)
Narrow , noun
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.
Narrow , transitive verb
[Anglo-Saxon 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.
3.
(Knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
Narrow , intransitive verb
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.