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Narrow   /nˈɛroʊ/  /nˈæroʊ/   Listen
adjective
Narrow  adj.  (compar. narrower; superl. narrowest)  
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.
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.
(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. 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.


verb
Narrow  v. t.  (past & past part. narrowed; pres. part. narrowing)  
1.
To lessen the breadth of; to contract; to draw into a smaller compass; to reduce the width or extent of.
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  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.
3.
(Knitting) To contract the size of a stocking or other knit article, by taking two stitches into one.


noun
Narrow  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."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Narrow" Quotes from Famous Books



... to contract the lines of defense, so as to diminish the garrison to the limit necessary to defend its narrow and vital parts, instead of embracing, as the lines now do, the vast suburbs. This contraction of the lines, with the necessary citadels and redoubts, will make it necessary to destroy the very houses ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... time threading a lane so narrow that he could touch a wall with either hand, when it began to open out and go sharply downward. Plainly this lay no longer in the direction of his inn; but the hope of a little more light tempted him forward to reconnoitre. The lane ended in a terrace ...
— New Arabian Nights • Robert Louis Stevenson
... embroider in a frame with silk, And to sketch and design the wild and tame Beasts of the forest and field? Also to picture on plain surfaces; Round about to place golden borders— narrow and a broad one— With stags and ...
— Needlework As Art • Marian Alford
... small voice had suddenly spoken in her mind, and said: "Brace up." Presently she stopped crying, as became one who had been made the subject of a manifestation, and began to put her hair in order at the narrow mirror between the two windows. Meanwhile, though Mr. Holiday was making himself scarce, as the saying is, he was consumed with interest to know why the beautiful girl was weeping. And he ...
— The Spread Eagle and Other Stories • Gouverneur Morris
... bluff north of the river Carolyn June and Skinny checked their horses while the girl gazed down on the panorama of green fields, narrow lanes, corrals and low buildings of the Quarter Circle KT. The sight thrilled her. On all the Kiowa range there was no ...
— The Ramblin' Kid • Earl Wayland Bowman


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