straight adv.
1. without any reservations; usu. of speech, thus frankly, openly.
 | (trans.) Erasmus Praise of Folie (1509) 9: For truly it hath euer best lyked me to speake streight what so euver laie on my tongues ende. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Three Lords and Three Ladies of London D1: Yonder’s my stal, but beware I loose nothing, for if I do, Ile lay it straight to some of you; for I saw none so like theeues. | |
| Two Angry Women of Abington A4: Forsooth they’l call it a pot quarrell straight. | |
| Nights Search I 57: She askt him strait, What wench he’d please to have; one young or old. | |
| Man of Mode I i: These young women apprehend loving as much as the young men do fighting at first; but once entered, like them too, they all turn bullies straight. | |
| Buffalo Commercial (NY) 11 May 2/3: ‘I am against the whole scheme, dead as a herring, flat as a clam shell, and straight as a loon’s leg’. | |
| Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 315: His doctor [...] having told him ‘straight’ that the air of Brighton was too keen for him. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Robbery Under Arms (1922) 187: Men liked to be talked to straight, and no shilly-shally. | |
| Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 70: Them chairs an’ things [...] was hers—mine that is to say, speaking straight, and man to man. | |
| Life (NY) 17 Oct. n.p.: [cartoon caption] I ain’t a’givin’ guff; I’m a’givin’ it to yer straight — he was a corker. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Bowery Life [ebook] Say, Peg, on de level—give it ter me straight—wot makes yer look like a dead one? | |
| Everlasting Mercy 70: She put it to him straight, by God. | |
| ‘Champion’ Coll. Short Stories (1941) 116: He’s took my dope pretty straight so far. | |
| Film Fun 24 Apr. 20: I tell you straight. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 230: What I can’t understand is how the inspectors ever allowed a boat like that... Now you are talking straight, Mr Crimmins. | |
| Capricornia (1939) 181: It’d’ve saved a lot of bother if you’d’ve talked straight about it. | |
| (con. 1943–5) To Hell and Back (1950) 256: You can talk to me straight. | |
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 839: I’ll lay it out for you straight. | |
| Crazy Kill 95: You think I can’t tell when a man’s talking straight? | |
| ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ in Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 7: I’m telling you straight: they’re cunning, and I’m cunning. | |
| Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 145: ‘Now I want it straight, do you hear? No messing!’. | |
| Plender [ebook] ‘I hope to Christ you’re giving it me straight’. | |
| letter 21 Apr. Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 117: Liz Taylor the only one to put it straight to the audience, some of whom shouted ‘get off’. | |
| Indep. on Sun. Culture 3 Oct. 6: Give it to us straight, for God’s sake! |
2. (US) properly, efficiently.
| Innocents at Home 358: I invite you all to come and see that I do it [i.e. a hanging] all straight. | |
| Crissie 72: ‘Well, my Lord [...] you had me straight this time’. | |
| Wild Tribes of London in Illus. Police News 18 Jan. 12/1: Little Jerry will stay here behind and see that all goes straight while we are away. | |
| Way Home (2009) 55: Not all succumbed to the atmosphere. There were guards who did their job straight. |
3. (Aus.) of a relationship, honestly, kindly.
| Sport (Adelaide) 15 Mar. 12/2: They Say [...] That Mrs Nagg is after the girl in Glebe street. Wonder if he'll run her straight. |
4. legally, by honest means.
| Claude Garton 270: ‘This is the way to run a sixpenny show. Of course, some philanthropic idiots run them straight enough, but there's no money in it. I know my marks at a glance now’. | |
| Marvel 22 Feb. 15: I’ll work for you as hard as I would work for myself, and as straight, or you don’t pay me. | |
| Legion of Hell 186: Every sort of graft is rife in the Legion [...] Promotion can also be purchased. [...] I did not, however, conform to any of these pleasant little customs. I won my promotion straight, and I kept it straight. | |
| Tomorrow’s Another Day 186: ‘We’ve been trying to run this track straight to the best of our ability’. | |
| He Died with His Eyes Open 117: You make it [i.e. money] straight? |
5. as a general intensifier, emphasizing verbs.
| Night and the City 27: I don’t want it, ’Arry, straight I don’t. | |
| Teachers (1962) 64: I’d kill a kid of mine that would go an’ do the like of that [...] I would straight, I’d kill him. | |
| Family Arsenal 33: I’ll nail you, straight I will. |
6. (orig. US) consecutively, in a row; also as adj., consecutive.
| letter 30 Apr. in Letters (1966) 35: He spent 48 straight hours with me a couple of days before he went. | |
| You Know Me Al (1984) 26: I have road one night at a time but this was four straight nights. | |
| Big Gold Dream 58: If they missed three nights straight running, it was their little hip pockets. | |
| Stormy Weather 39: Intinerant construction workers who’d been on the road for several days straight. | |
| (con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 132: He looked at the Blatz Beer clock centred over the front door and noticed that he had been working close to two hours straight. |
7. sensibly.
| In For Life 168: I wasn’t thinking very straight. |
8. (chiefly US black) a general intensifier, e.g. completely, utterly.
| Da Bomb 🌐 27: Straight: 1. Totally. After smoking that marijuana, I was straight tripping. | |
| ‘Murder Ink’ 🎵 Resume the wifey boo shit, cause yo my man don’t know / that his bitch is straight ill, servin ass with fo’fo’. | |
| Tuff 6: This fat nigger ain’t no joke. Yo — known uptown for straight KO’ing niggers. | |
| Source Aug. 124: I’m straight gully, y’all! Mowtown done got gully, and they pick the grimiest of all to be their first lady! | |
| Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 5: The train was funky because a bum was on it straight stinking it up. I covered my nose. | |
| (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016. |
9. (US black) very well.
| Tuff 176: ‘How’s the descrambler I hooked you up with working out?’ ‘Straight.’. |
In compounds
(US teen) acting in whatever manner is dictated by one’s current circumstances.
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 straight floungin n. acting normally according to social circumstances. For example ‘I’m straight floungin to the mall’, means ‘I’m chillin at the mall’ or ‘hangin out’. |
In phrases
(US) to apologize, to make amends to someone.
| Blacktop Wasteland 41: ‘He never did get you straight about that thing with the horse, did he?’. |
to speak honestly, unreservedly.
| Dagonet Ballads 2: Give it us straight now, guv’nor—what would you have me do? | |
| Powers That Prey 32: You coppers got to help him. I ain’t going to have the Eye people snake in all the loose coin; I give it to you straight. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 241: She gave it to me straight. | |
| Big Gold Dream 49: If you are a friend of Alberta’s, you’ll give it to us straight. |
(orig. theatre) to behave in an honest manner, to resist embellishing one’s actions with artifice.
| Is Zat So? I ii: He’s always played it pretty straight with me. | |
| Nobody Lives for Ever 123: [T]his was supposed to be a honeymoon and he was trying to play it straight. | |
| Blues for the Prince (1989) 170: Just play it straight, like a smart boy, huh? | |
| Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 68: This is too dangerous for guns; let’s play it straight. | |
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 144: If you play straight with us, Sonny, we’ll play straight with you. | |
| Choirboys (1976) 226: I don’t wanna see you perjure yourself [...] so you play it straight. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 612: If I had only played it straight with her! | |
| (con. 1946) Big Blowdown (1999) 68: Do me a favor, then. Play things straight tonight. |
SE in slang uses
Implying (rustic) naivety
In phrases
a derog. term used of an Irish immigrant to the UK.
| Freeman’s Jrnl 15 Dec. 4/7: The girl, straight from the bog, radiant in hat and feathers. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Winnipeg Trib. (Manitoba) 17 June 13/5: After tweo generations the grandson talked like an Irishman straight from the bog. | |
| Guardian 8 Dec. 5/4: A gang of about twenty men, all — in the words of their contractor boss — ‘straight from the bog’. | |
| Guardian 9 Mar. 10/4: Ollenshaw’s direwction [...] tends to play down the satire on bourgeois Ireland in favour of [...] Suzanne Delaney’s straight-from-the-bogs wife. | |
| Belfast Tel. 17 June 10/4: Coming straight from the bog he seemed a bit dazzled [...] by the sights of London. |
1. (US campus) extreme, unsophisticated; strange.
| Herald-Press (Passaic, NJ) 30 Apr. 26/1: For summer pure white sharkskin and linen replace the straight off the banana-boat colors. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 7: straight off the banana boat – strange, weird. |
2. naive.
| posting at advicechick.com 8 Nov. 🌐 I asked him if he thought I just fell off the banana boat. |
(Aus./N.Z.) used of a country bumpkin.
| DSUE (8th edn) 1163/2: —1932. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | (ref. to 1930s) Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 108/2: straight off the turnips country bumpkin. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. | |
| Atlanta Constit. (GA) 4 May M4/1: ‘I was not designed for the environment [...] Plus I was straight off the turnip truck’. |
a derog. phr. used of black immigrants, irrespective of background, to the UK.
| DSUE (8th edn) 1163/2: [...] later C.20. |
(US) a general intensifier, indicating a supreme example of the preceding n.
| Observer Mag. 1 Aug. 31: A motherfucker straight down the pike. |
of news, information, absolutely reliable, from ‘inside’ sources; note extrapolation in cit. 1931.
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 35: Yes — I got it straight from the feed box and it’s right. | |
| (con. WWI) Soldier and Sailor Words 210: Nosebag, Straight From The: Authoritative. Trustworthy. | |
| Derby Dly Teleg. 27 Nov. 10/3: This is a tip straight from the ‘horse’s nosebag’. | |
| One-Way Ride 284: When any crime story broke, Jake could always be depended on to get the low-down on it. The old feed-box info. was Jake’s speciality. | |
| Derby Dly Teleg. 21 May 4/3: In racing, parlance such as a tip would be described as ‘straight from the nose-bag’. | |
| Derby Dly Teleg. 10 Feb. 2/3: It is still more pleasurable to Derby people to get something ‘straight from the nosebag’ of a Derby man. | |
| Manhattan Mercury (KS) 3 Mar. 3/5: Straight from the feed box — straight frothe shoulder comes the announcement of Sosna’s new week-end policy of running only first run pictures. |
(US black/teen) excellent, first-rate.
| Beat Girl [film script] Great dad, great, straight from the fridge. | |
| Birmingham Dly Post 19 June 7/7: [headline] Dressed Straight from the Fridge. Ascot’s most sensationally dressed girl [etc.] . | |
| Gazette (Montreal) 11 May 45/6: The ‘farewell’ Adagio-Allegro came straight from the fridge. |
(orig. racing jargon) of news or information, absolutely reliable, gleaned from ‘inside’ sources.
| Brave New World (1955) 15: Whenever the great man spoke, he desperately scribbled. Straight from the horse’s mouth. | |
| Right Ho, Jeeves 53: In order to [...] learn the inside history straight from the horse’s mouth. | |
| letter 3 June in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 637: I won’t run for ten percent and you have that right straight from the horse’s mouth. | |
| ‘See Him Die’ in Jungle Kids (1967) 102: I know a guy who was at the line-up [...] so this is straight from the horse’s mouth. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 115: Go to the fountainhead and get it straight from the horse’s mouth. | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Fireflies 43: I’ve been planning to write this book for a long time [...] It’s all going to come straight back from the horse’s mouth, as they say. | |
| Hooligans (2003) 75: ‘You’re sure about that?’ ‘Straight from the horse’s mouth.’. | |
| Skull Session 285: I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth. | |
| Guardian G2 4 July 7: From the horse’s mouth ... ‘I’m a failed punter’. | |
| Californian (CA) 15 Jan. 14/1: ‘The aim is to get the report straight from the horse’s mouth’. | |
| Messenger (Madisonville, KY) 22 Feb. PP2/3: ‘When you hear something through the grapevine [...] don’t assume that it’s true. Get the facts straight from the horse’s mouth’. |
see separate entry.