straighten

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   get up from a sitting or slouching position

   The students straightened when the teacher entered.

2. 2
   verb

   To cause to become straight.

   [S]o / Do these upbear the little world below / Of Education,—Patience, Love, and Hope. / Methinks, I see them group'd in seemly show, / The straiten'd arms upraised, the palms aslope, / And robes that touching as adown they flow, / Distinctly blend, like snow emboss'd in snow.

3. 3
   verb

   To put in order; to sort; to tidy up.

   to straighten one's affairs

4. 4
   verb

   To make heterosexual.

   It has been said that to survive in this Wasp society, Blacks must straighten their hair, Jews must straighten their noses, and Gays must straighten themselves. But we will no longer tolerate being straightened. It is the doctors and the straight society who must change.

5. 5
   verb

   put (things or places) in order

6. 6
   verb

   make straight or straighter

7. 7
   verb

   straighten by unrolling

8. 8
   verb

   straighten up or out

Etymology

From straight + -en. Compare Scots strauchten (“to straighten”).