S T R 
Honour travels in a streight so narrow. 
Where one but goes abreast. Shakspeare. 
Distress; difficulty, [strete, old Fr. embarras, difficulte. 
Lacombe.] 
’Tis hard with me, whatever choice I make, 
I must not merit you, or must forsake : 
But in this streight, to honour I'll be true. 
And leave my fortune to the gods and you. Dryden. 
To STRAIT, v. a. To put to difficulties. 
If your lass 
Interpretation should abuse, and call this 
Your lack of love or bounty; you were straited 
For a reply, at least, if you make care 
Of happy holding her. Shakspeare. 
To STRAITEN, v. a. To make narrow. 
If this be our condition, thus to dwell 
In narrow circuit straiten'd by a foe, 
Subtle or violent. Milton. 
To contract; to confine.—Feeling can give us a notion 
of all ideas that enter at the eye, except colours; but it is 
very much streightened and confined to the number, bulk, 
and distance of its objects. Addison. 
To make tight; to intend. 
Stretch them at their length. 
And pull their streighten'd cords with all your strength. 
Dryden. 
To deprive of necessary room. 
The airy crowd 
Swarm’d and were straiten'd. Milton. 
To distress; to perplex.—Men, by continually striving 
and fighting to enlarge their bounds, and encroaching upon 
one another, seem to be straitened for want of room. 
Ray. 
STRAITHANDED, adj. Parsimonious; sparing; nig¬ 
gardly. 
STRAITHA'NDEDNESS, s. Niggardliness.—They were 
not more liberal than our Romish divorcers are niggardly:— 
the Romish doctrine makes the strait-handedness so much 
more injurious. Bp. Hall. 
STRAITLA'CED, adj. Griped with stays.—Let nature 
have scope to fashion the body as she thinks best; we have 
few well-shaped that are straitlaced, or much tampered 
with. Locke. —Stiff; constrained; without freedom.— 
I was never so strait-lac'd to you, squire. B. Jonson. 
STRAFTLY, adv. Narrowly. Strictly ; rigorously.— 
Those laws he straitly requireth to be observed without 
breach or blame. Hooker. —Closely; intimately. 
STRAITNESS, s. Narrowness.—The straitness of my 
conscience will not give me leave to swallow down such 
camels. King Charles. —Strictness; rigour. If his own 
life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become 
him well. Shakspeare. —Distress; difficulty; want; scar¬ 
city.—The straitness of the conveniences of life amongst 
them had never reached so far, as to the use of fire, till the 
Spaniards brought it amongst them. Locke. 
STRAITON, a parish of Scotland, in Ayrshire, about 15 
miles in length from north-west to south-east, and 5 in 
breadth. Population 1069. 
STRAKE. The obsolete preterite of strike ; struck. 
Did’st thou not see a bleeding hind 
Whose right haunch earst my stedfast arrow strake ? 
Spenser. 
STRAKE, s. A long mark ; a streak. See Streak. A 
narrow board; the strake of a cart is the iron with which 
the cart wheels are bound. Barret. 
STRAKONITZ, a small town of Bohemia, on the river 
Wotawa, 60 miles south-by-west of Prague, and 18 north of 
Prachatitz. Population 2000. 
Voi,. XXIII. No. 1595. 
S T R 617 
STRALEN, a small town of Prussian Westphalia, in the 
government of Cleves ; 6 miles south-west of Gueldres. 
STRALSTEIN, Actinolite. See Mineralogy. 
STRALSUND, a government of the Prussian states, in¬ 
cluding the part of Pomerania whieh belonged to Sweden 
until 1813, along with Rugen and other islands on the north 
coast. It is almost entirely surrounded by water, the Baltic 
bounding it on the north, and the Peene, the Trebel, and the 
Reckenitz, three rivers partly navigable, on the other sides. 
Its area is 1400 square miles; its population about 115,000; 
and it is much more fertile than the rest of Pomerania. In¬ 
stead of the lakes and light sandy soils of the governments of 
Stettin and Coslin, there is here a heavy loam or black 
mould, producing fine crops of corn, rye, and pulse, as well 
as flax and tobacco. The pastures are not favourable for the 
larger cattle; but the number of sheep, hogs, and above all, 
of geese, is very considerable. 
STRALSUND, a considerable town of Pomerania, long 
subject to Sweden, now to Prussia. It is situated on the 
strait which separates the island of Rugen from the mainland; 
and being surrounded on one part by the sea, in others by 
lakes and marshes, is accessible only by bridges, and was a 
fortress of importance till 1807, since which it has been in 
a manner dismantled. Its harbour is capacious and safe, 
admitting ships of 15 feet of draught: those of greater bur¬ 
den unload in the roads. The population exceeds 11,000, 
but the aspect of the town is gloomy, the houses being low, 
built of brick, and remarkable for being pointed at the top. 
Of churches there are four Protestant and one Catholic. The 
other public buildings are the government-house, the town- 
house, the mint, the arsenal, and the governor’s residence: 
Of public institutions, the chief are the academy or gymna¬ 
sium, the orphan-house, the poor-house, the lunatic hospital, 
and the public library. The environs are flat and sandy, 
and the water used by the inhabitants is raised by an hydrau¬ 
lic machine. The manufactures are on a small scale, but 
very diversified, comprising woollens, linen, tobacco, soap, 
and glass: also breweries and distilleries. Stralsund was built 
about the year 1209, became a member of the Hanseatic 
league, and has long been a place of trade. Of corn, its 
principal export, there is sometimes shipped between 30,000 
and 40,000 quarters. The imports consist, as in the other 
towns in the Baltic, chiefly of colonial produce and foreign 
manufactures. Here, as at Stettin, the building of ships and 
boats form a considerable branch of trade. The town has 
suffered much at different times by sieges, but has always re¬ 
covered, in consequence chiefly of its favourable situation for 
trade; 90 miles north-north-west of Stettin. Lat. 54. 19. 
N. long. 30. 32. E. 
To STRA'MASH, v. a. [stramazzare , Ital.] To beat; 
to bang; to break irreparably; to destroy: a northern word, 
according to Grose, who, however, notices no etymon. 
Dr. Jamieson mentions the substantive stramash as a Scottish 
word, and refers to the Fr. estramaqon, a blow. 
STRAMBERG, a small town of the Austrian states, in 
Moravia; 35 miles east of Olmutz, and 5 south-south-west 
of Freyberg. Population 1600. 
STRAMBINO, a town of the Sardinian states, in the 
Piedmontese province of Ivrea, on the Chiusella, with 3400 
inhabitants. 
STRAMI'NEOUS, adj. \stramineus, Lat.] Strawy; 
consisting of straw.—Upon a sudden approach of the warmed 
electric, the stramineous bodies will, at first, a little 
recede. Dr. Robinson. —Light; chaffy ; like straw.— 
Other discourse, dry, barren, stramineous, dull, and heavy. 
Burton. 
STRAMONIUM. See Datura Stramonium. 
SRAMSHALL, or Strenshall, a township of England, 
in Staffordshire, situated on a rivulet; 1|- mile north-north¬ 
west of Uttoxeter. 
STRAMULIPP, a district of modern Greece, comprising 
the ancient Boeotia. See Turkey. 
STRAND, s. [jCpanb, Saxon; strande, Dutch; strend, 
Icelandic.] The verge of the sea or of any water. 
7 S I saw 
