The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Strait \Strait\, adv.
   Strictly; rigorously. [Obs.] --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Strait \Strait\, n.; pl. Straits. [OE. straight, streit, OF.
   estreit, estroit. See Strait, a.]
   1. A narrow pass or passage.
      [1913 Webster]

            He brought him through a darksome narrow strait
            To a broad gate all built of beaten gold. --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

            Honor travels in a strait so narrow
            Where one but goes abreast.           --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Specifically: (Geog.) A (comparatively) narrow passageway
      connecting two large bodies of water; -- often in the
      plural; as, the strait, or straits, of Gibraltar; the
      straits of Magellan; the strait, or straits, of Mackinaw.
      [1913 Webster]

            We steered directly through a large outlet which
            they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles
            broad.                                --De Foe.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A neck of land; an isthmus. [R.]
      [1913 Webster]

            A dark strait of barren land.         --Tennyson.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Fig.: A condition of narrowness or restriction; doubt;
      distress; difficulty; poverty; perplexity; -- sometimes in
      the plural; as, reduced to great straits.
      [1913 Webster]

            For I am in a strait betwixt two.     --Phil. i. 23.
      [1913 Webster]

            Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate
            under any calamity or strait whatsoever. --South.
      [1913 Webster]

            Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural
            infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that
            time in his thoughts.                 --Broome.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Strait \Strait\, a.
   A variant of Straight. [Obs.]
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Strait \Strait\, a. [Compar. Straiter; superl. Straitest.]
   [OE. straight, streyt, streit, OF. estreit, estroit, F.
   ['e]troit, from L. strictus drawn together, close, tight, p.
   p. of stringere to draw tight. See 2nd Strait, and cf.
   Strict.]
   1. Narrow; not broad.
      [1913 Webster]

            Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
            leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
                                                  --Matt. vii.
                                                  14.
      [1913 Webster]

            Too strait and low our cottage doors. --Emerson.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Tight; close; closely fitting. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Close; intimate; near; familiar. [Obs.] "A strait degree
      of favor." --Sir P. Sidney.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Strict; scrupulous; rigorous.
      [1913 Webster]

            Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            The straitest sect of our religion.   --Acts xxvi. 5
                                                  (Rev. Ver.).
      [1913 Webster]

   5. Difficult; distressful; straited.
      [1913 Webster]

            To make your strait circumstances yet straiter.
                                                  --Secker.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. Parsimonious; niggargly; mean. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            I beg cold comfort, and you are so strait,
            And so ingrateful, you deny me that.  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Strait \Strait\, v. t.
   To put to difficulties. [Obs.] --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

strait
    adj 1: narrow; "strait is the gate"
    n 1: a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of
         water [syn: strait, sound]
    2: a bad or difficult situation or state of affairs [syn:
       pass, strait, straits]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

159 Moby Thesaurus words for "strait":
   angustifoliate, angustirostrate, angustisellate, angustiseptal,
   arm, armlet, bay, bayou, belt, bight, bind, boca, bottleneck,
   bound, bounded, box, breakers ahead, canal, cardhouse,
   cause for alarm, channel, circumscribed, climacteric, close,
   close-fitting, clutch, complication, conditioned, confined,
   confining, constricted, contingency, convergence of events,
   copyrighted, cove, cramp, cramped, creek, crisis,
   critical juncture, critical point, crossroads, crowded,
   crucial period, crunch, danger, dangerous ground, defile,
   demanding, difficult, dilemma, disciplined, embarrassing position,
   embarrassment, emergency, endangerment, estuary, euripus, exacting,
   exigency, extremity, fine how-do-you-do, finite, fjord, frith,
   gaping chasm, gathering clouds, gulf, gut, harbor, hazard,
   hell to pay, hinge, hobble, hot water, house of cards,
   how-do-you-do, imbroglio, imperilment, incapacious, incommodious,
   inlet, isthmian, isthmic, isthmus, jam, jeopardy, kyle, limited,
   limiting, loch, meager, menace, mess, mix, moderated, morass,
   mouth, narrow, narrow seas, narrows, natural harbor, near, neck,
   parlous straits, pass, patented, peril, perplexity, pickle, pinch,
   plight, predicament, prescribed, pretty pass, pretty pickle,
   pretty predicament, proscribed, push, quagmire, qualified,
   quicksand, reach, restricted, restricting, rigorous, risk, road,
   roads, roadstead, rocks ahead, rub, scant, scanty, scrape, slender,
   slough, sound, spot, squeeze, stew, sticky wicket, storm clouds,
   straitened, straits, swamp, thin ice, threat, throat, tight,
   tight spot, tight squeeze, tightrope, tricky spot, trouble, turn,
   turning, turning point, unholy mess