straighten

«straighten» in Mova's school dictionary: To make something straight, or to become straight — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (straighten, straightens, straightened, straightening)

meaning for a pupil

1) To make something straight, or to become straight. tree →

2) (straighten up) To stand up straight, or to make a place tidy. tree →

3) (straighten out) To fix a problem or misunderstanding. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life, you straighten your tie, a picture on the wall or your back; «straighten up your room» means tidy it. In feelings lessons, «straighten things out» means talk to fix a quarrel. In health, braces straighten teeth. Phrases: «straighten up», «straighten out», «straighten your back».

examples

• Straighten your back when you sit at your desk. tree →
• Please straighten the books on the shelf. tree →
• Braces will straighten your teeth. tree →
• The picture is crooked — can you straighten it? tree →
• Let's straighten out this misunderstanding. tree →
• He straightened up and smiled. tree →
• Straighten the wire before you use it. tree →
• Mum told us to straighten up the playroom. tree →

note

The gh is silent: said «STRAY-tun». Adjective: «straight» (homophone «strait», a narrow sea passage). Opposite: bend.

In the corpora

• Muscles can only pull, never push, so they work in pairs: the biceps bends the elbow and the triceps straightens it.
• In cricket the bowler must bowl, not throw: the elbow must not bend and straighten as the ball is let go.
• A jammed finger should not be pulled hard; one that looks bent or will not straighten needs an X-ray.
• In cricket the bowler's arm mustn't straighten while bowling, so bowling is not throwing.
• The biceps bends the arm and the triceps straightens it.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «straighten» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.