streIt
noun
1. a narrow channel of water between two larger bodies.
The Bering Strait separates Alaska from Russia.
2. (usu. pl.) a condition or position of need, distress, or constraint.
She is in difficult straits these days without a job.
The nation’s economy was in dire straits after the war.
He would never have asked for the money if he had not been in desperate straits.
