narrow

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (usu participle)
• HYPHEN: nar=row
• COUNT in NET: 11 in 11 verses (in OT : 7 in 7 verses) (in NT : 4 in 4 verses)

CIDE DICTIONARY

narrow, a. [OE. narwe, naru, AS. nearu; akin to OS. naru, naro.].

•  Of little breadth; not wide or broad; having little distance from side to side; as, a narrow board; a narrow street; a narrow hem.  [1913 Webster]

  "Hath passed in safety through the narrow seas."  [1913 Webster]
•  Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.  [1913 Webster]

  "The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  Limited as to means; straitened; pinching; as, narrow circumstances.  [1913 Webster]
•  Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted; as, a narrow mind; narrow views.  Macaulay.  [1913 Webster]
•  Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.  [1913 Webster]

  "A very narrow and stinted charity."  [1913 Webster]
•  Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.  [1913 Webster]

  "But first with narrow search I must walk round
  This garden, and no corner leave unspied."  [1913 Webster]
•  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 Guide to Pronunciation, 1913 Webster]

  " 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."  [1913 Webster]

Narrow gauge. (Railroad) See Note under Gauge, n., 6.

narrow, n. 

 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.  [1913 Webster]
"Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous
narrow."  [1913 Webster]

narrow, v. t. [AS. nearwian.].

•  To lessen the breadth of; to contract; to draw into a smaller compass; to reduce the width or extent of.  Sir W. Temple.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Our knowledge is much more narrowed if we confine ourselves to our own solitary reasonings."  [1913 Webster]
•  To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.  [1913 Webster]

narrow, v. i. 

•  To become less broad; to contract; to become narrower; as, the sea narrows into a strait.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not to step out enough to the one hand or the other; as, a horse narrows.  Farrier's Dict.  [1913 Webster]
•  To contract the size of a stocking or other knit article, by taking two stitches into one.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

narrow, adj., n., & v.
--adj. (narrower, narrowest)
1 a of small width in proportion to length; lacking breadth. b confined or confining; constricted (within narrow bounds).
2 of limited scope; restricted (in the narrowest sense).
3 with little margin (a narrow escape).
4 searching; precise; exact (a narrow examination).
5 = NARROW-MINDED.
6 (of a vowel) tense.
7 of small size.
--n.
1 (usu. in pl.) the narrow part of a strait, river, sound, etc.
2 a narrow pass or street.
--v.
1 intr. become narrow; diminish; contract; lessen.
2 tr. make narrow; constrict; restrict.

Idiom

narrow boat Brit. a canal boat, esp. one less than 7 ft. (2.1 metres) wide. narrow circumstances poverty. narrow cloth cloth less than 52 inches wide. narrow gauge a railway track that has a smaller gauge than the standard one. narrow seas the English Channel and the Irish Sea. narrow squeak
1 a narrow escape.
2 a success barely attained.

Derivative

narrowish adj. narrowly adv. narrowness n.

Etymology

OE nearu nearw- f. Gmc

THESAURUS

narrow

Lenten, Quakerish, Spartan, Victorian, abate, abbreviate, abstemious, accented, accurate, adjust to, alter, alveolar, angustifoliate, angustirostrate, angustisellate, angustiseptal, apical, apico-alveolar, apico-dental, articulated, ascetic, assimilated, assuage, attentive, attenuated, austere, authoritarian, back, badly off, barytone, be into, be strong in, bigot, bigoted, bilabial, borne, bound, bounded, box, box in, box up, broad, cacuminal, careful, censorious, central, cerebral, channel, checked, chinchy, circumscribe, circumscribed, close, close-fitting, closed, coarct, compact, compress, concentrate, condense, condition, conditioned, confine, confined, confining, conscientious, consolidate, consonant, consonantal, constrict, constricted, constringe, contain, continuant, contract, copyright, copyrighted, correct, cramp, cramped, creedbound, critical, crowded, curtail, deaf, deaf to reason, decrease, delicate, demanding, demure, denotative, dental, detailed, determinate, diminish, discipline, disciplined, dissimilated, distill, distressed, dorsal, down to bedrock, draw, draw in, draw the line, draw together, dwarfed, dwarfish, embarrassed, ethnocentric, exact, exacting, exceptional, excluding, exclusive, exclusory, exigent, exiguous, exquisite, fanatical, feature, feeling the pinch, fine, finical, finicking, finicky, finite, fixed, flat, focus, follow, front, frugal, fussy, glide, glossal, glottal, go in, go in for, guttural, hairbreadth, hard, hard up, heavy, hedge, hedge about, hem, hem in, hidebound, high, ill off, illiberal, impecunious, impoverished, in Queer Street, in narrow circumstances, in reduced circumstances, in straitened circumstances, inadmissible, incapacious, incommodious, ineffectual, inexorable, inflexible, insular, intolerant, intonated, isthmian, isthmic, jejune, keep from spreading, keep within bounds, knit, labial, labiodental, labiovelar, land-poor, lateral, lax, lean, leaven, lessen, light, limit, limited, lingual, liquid, little, little-minded, localize, low, lucky, major in, meager, mean, mean-minded, mean-spirited, mercenary, meticulous, mid, mid-Victorian, mingy, minor in, minute, miserly, mitigate, moderate, moderated, modify, modulate, monophthongal, muted, narrow-hearted, narrow-minded, narrow-souled, narrow-spirited, narrowed, narrowing, narrows, nasal, nasalized, near, nearsighted, nice, niggard, niggardly, obdurate, occlusive, old-maidish, on the edge, open, out of pocket, overmodest, oversimplify, oxytone, palatal, palatalized, palliate, paltry, parochial, parsimonious, particular, passage, patent, patented, petty, pharyngeal, pharyngealized, phonemic, phonetic, phonic, pinched, pitch, pitched, poor, poorly off, posttonic, precise, precisianistic, precisionistic, preclusive, prescribed, prescriptive, preventive, priggish, prim, prohibitive, proscribed, provincial, prudish, pucker, pucker up, punctilious, punctual, puny, purblind, purify, puritanical, purse, pursue, qualified, qualify, reduce, reduce to elements, reduced, refine, refined, register, regulate by, religious, restrain, restrict, restricted, restrictive, retroflex, rigid, rigorous, rounded, sanctimonious, scant, scanty, scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, scrupulous, scrutinizing, searching, season, seclusive, segregative, select, selective, semivowel, separative, set, set conditions, set limits, sharp, short, short of cash, short of funds, shorten, shortsighted, simplify, skimp, skimpy, slender, slight, slim, small, small-minded, smug, snape, snobbish, soft, soften, solidify, sonant, spare, sparing, specialize, specialize in, squeezed, starvation, stiff-necked, stingy, stint, stinted, stopped, strait, straiten, straitened, straitlaced, straits, strangle, strangulate, strapped, streamline, stressed, strict, strip down, strong, stuffy, stunted, subsistence, subtle, surd, syllabic, taper, tapering, temper, tense, thick, thin, throaty, tight, tight-fisted, tighten, tonal, tonic, twangy, unaccented, uncatholic, uncharitable, ungenerous, unliberal, unmoneyed, unnourishing, unnutritious, unprosperous, unrounded, unstressed, velar, vocalic, vocoid, voiced, voiceless, vowel, vowellike, watered, watery, weak, wide, wrinkle, xenophobic

ROGET THESAURUS

narrow

Contraction

VB become small, become smaller, lessen, decrease, grow less, dwindle, shrink, contract, narrow, shrivel, collapse, wither, lose flesh, wizen, fall away, waste, wane, ebb, decay, be smaller than, fall short of, not come up to, render smaller, lessen, diminish, contract, draw in, narrow, coarctate, boil down, constrict, constringe, condense, compress, squeeze, corrugate, crimp, crunch, crush, crumple up, warp, purse up, pack, squeeze, stow, pinch, tighten, strangle, cramp, dwarf, bedwarf, shorten, circumscribe, restrain, (subtraction) 38 abrade, pare, reduce, attenuate, rub down, scrape, file, file down, grind, grind down, chip, shave, shear, wear down, become small, become smaller, lessen, decrease, grow less, dwindle, shrink, contract, narrow, shrivel, collapse, wither, lose flesh, wizen, fall away, waste, wane, ebb, decay, be smaller than, fall short of, not come up to, render smaller, lessen, diminish, contract, draw in, narrow, coarctate, boil down, constrict, constringe, condense, compress, squeeze, corrugate, crimp, crunch, crush, crumple up, warp, purse up, pack, squeeze, stow, pinch, tighten, strangle, cramp, dwarf, bedwarf, shorten, circumscribe, restrain, (subtraction) 38 abrade, pare, reduce, attenuate, rub down, scrape, file, file down, grind, grind down, chip, shave, shear, wear down.

Thinness

VB be narrow, narrow, taper, contract, render narrow, waste away.

N narrowness, thinness, narrowness, closeness, exility, exiguity, line, hair's breadth, finger's breadth, strip, streak, vein, monolayer, epitaxial deposition, thinness, tenuity, emaciation, macilency, marcor, shaving, slip, thread paper, skeleton, shadow, anatomy, spindleshanks, lantern jaws, mere skin and bone, middle constriction, stricture, neck, waist, isthmus, wasp, hourglass, ridge, ghaut, ghat, pass, ravine, narrowing, coarctation, angustation, tapering, contraction, narrow, close, slender, thin, fine, thread-like, finespun, gossamer, paper-thin, taper, slim, slight-made, scant, scanty, spare, delicate, incapacious, contracted, unexpanded &c (expand), slender as a thread, emaciated, lean, meager, gaunt, macilent, lank, lanky, weedy, skinny, scrawny slinky, starved, starveling, herring gutted, worn to a shadow, lean as a rake, thin as a lath, thin as a whipping post, thin as a wafer, hatchet-faced, lantern-jawed, attenuated, shriveled, extenuated, tabid, marcid, barebone, rawboned, monomolecular.

Qualification

VB qualify, limit, modify, leaven, give a color to, introduce new conditions, narrow, temper, waffle, quibble, hem and haw (be uncertain), equivocate (sophistry), depend, depend on, be contingent on (effect), allow for, make allowance for, admit exceptions, take into account, modulate, moderate, temper, season, leaven, take exception.