narrow
Forms
- Comparative
- narrower
- Superlative
- narrowest
- Plural
- narrows
- present (v1)
- narrow
- past (v2)
- narrowed
- past participle (v3)
- narrowed
- present participle
- narrowing
- 3rd person singular
- narrows
Definitions
1.Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
- She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
2.Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
- The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.
3.Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.
4.Contracted; of limited scope; bigoted
1.To reduce in width or extent; to contract.
- We need to narrow the search.
2.To get narrower.
3.To partially lower one's eyelids in a way usually taken to suggest a defensive, aggressive or penetrating look.
- He stepped in front of me, narrowing his eyes to slits.
- She wagged her finger in his face, and her eyes narrowed.
1.A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.
- Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2491
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English narow, narowe, narewe, narwe, naru, from Old English nearu (“narrow, strait, confined, constricted, not spacious, limited, petty; limited, poor, restricted; oppressive, causing anxiety (of that which restricts free action of body or mind), causing or accompanied by difficulty, hardship, oppressive; oppressed, not having free action; strict, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *naru, from Proto-Germanic *narwaz (“constricted, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ner- (“to turn, bend, twist, constrict”).