narrow

narrow
    adj 1: not wide; "a narrow bridge"; "a narrow line across the
           page" [ant: {broad}, {wide}]
    2: limited in size or scope; "the narrow sense of a word"
    3: lacking tolerance or flexibility or breadth of view; "a
       brilliant but narrow-minded judge"; "narrow opinions" [syn:
       {narrow-minded}, {narrow}] [ant: {broad-minded}]
    4: very limited in degree; "won by a narrow margin"; "a narrow
       escape" [ant: {wide}]
    5: characterized by painstaking care and detailed examination;
       "a minute inspection of the grounds"; "a narrow scrutiny";
       "an exact and minute report" [syn: {minute}, {narrow}]
    n 1: a narrow strait connecting two bodies of water
    v 1: make or become more narrow or restricted; "The selection
         was narrowed"; "The road narrowed" [syn: {narrow},
         {contract}] [ant: {widen}]
    2: define clearly; "I cannot narrow down the rules for this
       game" [syn: {pin down}, {peg down}, {nail down}, {narrow
       down}, {narrow}, {specify}]
    3: become more focus on an area of activity or field of study;
       "She specializes in Near Eastern history" [syn: {specialize},
       {specialise}, {narrow}, {narrow down}] [ant: {branch out},
       {broaden}, {diversify}]
    4: become tight or as if tight; "Her throat constricted" [syn:
       {constrict}, {constringe}, {narrow}]
    

Narrow \Nar"row\ (n[a^]r"r[-o]), a. [Compar. {Narrower}
   (n[a^]r"r[-o]*[~e]r); superl. {Narrowest}.] [OE. narwe, naru,
   AS. nearu; akin to OS. naru, naro.]
   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.
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            Hath passed in safety through the narrow seas.
                                                  --Shak.
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   2. Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
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            The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a
            narrow compass in the world.          --Bp. Wilkins.
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   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. --Dryden.
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   4. Limited as to means; straitened; pinching; as, narrow
      circumstances.
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   5. Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted; as, a
      narrow mind; narrow views. "A narrow understanding."
      --Macaulay.
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   6. Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
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            A very narrow and stinted charity.    --Smalridge.
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   7. Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
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            But first with narrow search I must walk round
            This garden, and no corner leave unspied. --Milton.
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   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; as [=e] ([=e]ve) and [=oo]
      (f[=oo]d), etc., from [i^] ([i^]ll) and [oo^] (f[oo^]t),
      etc. See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect]13.
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   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.
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   {Narrow gauge}. (Railroad) See Note under {Gauge}, n., 6.
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Narrow \Nar"row\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Narrowed}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Narrowing}.] [AS. nearwian.]
   1. To lessen the breadth of; to contract; to draw into a
      smaller compass; to reduce the width or extent of. --Sir
      W. Temple.
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   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.
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            Our knowledge is much more narrowed if we confine
            ourselves to our own solitary reasonings. --I.
                                                  Watts.
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   3. (Knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by
      taking two stitches into one.
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Narrow \Nar"row\, v. i.
   1. To become less broad; to contract; to become narrower; as,
      the sea narrows into a strait.
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   2. (Man.) Not to step out enough to the one hand or the
      other; as, a horse narrows. --Farrier's Dict.
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   3. (Knitting) To contract the size of a stocking or other
      knit article, by taking two stitches into one.
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Narrow \Nar"row\, 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.
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         Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous
         narrow.                                  --Gladstone.
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405 Moby Thesaurus words for "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