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Narrow   /nˈɛroʊ/  /nˈæroʊ/   Listen
adjective
Narrow  adj.  (compar. narrower; superl. narrowest)  
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. "Hath passed in safety through the narrow seas."
2.
Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed. "The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world."
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.
4.
Limited as to means; straitened; pinching; as, narrow circumstances.
5.
Contracted; of limited scope; illiberal; bigoted; as, a narrow mind; narrow views. "A narrow understanding."
6.
Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish. "A very narrow and stinted charity."
7.
Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact. "But first with narrow search I must walk round This garden, and no corner leave unspied."
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. 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.
Narrow gauge. (Railroad) See Note under Gauge, n., 6.


verb
Narrow  v. t.  (past & past part. narrowed; pres. part. narrowing)  
1.
To lessen the breadth of; to contract; to draw into a smaller compass; to reduce the width or extent of.
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. "Our knowledge is much more narrowed if we confine ourselves to our own solitary reasonings."
3.
(Knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.


Narrow  v. i.  
1.
To become less broad; to contract; to become narrower; as, the sea narrows into a strait.
2.
(Man.) Not to step out enough to the one hand or the other; as, a horse narrows.
3.
(Knitting) To contract the size of a stocking or other knit article, by taking two stitches into one.


noun
Narrow  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. "Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Narrow" Quotes from Famous Books



... often that a village in this part of the country has such a narrow escape," said Eleanor, looking around, "See, girls, you can see for yourselves how close they were to having to turn and run ...
— The Camp Fire Girls on the March - Bessie King's Test of Friendship • Jane L. Stewart
... waded across, and began to climb up the opposite bank. I imitated his movements, and presently, having scrambled up on the farther side, we found ourselves standing on a narrow bank immediately under that summer house which Colin Camber had told me he had formerly used ...
— Bat Wing • Sax Rohmer
... taking a naughty satisfaction in the good trick she was playing on that poor boy killing himself to get back for dinner with her. An hour in the open banished her pettishness, and she drove rapidly along the narrow, twisting, unfamiliar road, finding a wild pleasure in her reckless speed. She loved this, she loved it, she loved it. She clapped on a little more gas to show how very dearly ...
— Sunny Slopes • Ethel Hueston
... the goddess with the radiant eyes: "What words are these, O sovereign of the skies! Short is the date prescribed to mortal man; Shall Jove for one extend the narrow span, Whose bounds were fix'd before his race began? How many sons of gods, foredoom'd to death, Before proud Ilion must resign their breath! Were thine exempt, debate would rise above, And murmuring powers condemn their partial ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer
... the first meeting; only a narrow escape of one. The man in the dark reckoned it safest to extend his hand and leave it, to await the first claimant. He took for granted this would be the mother, and as his hand closed on a lady's, not small enough to call his assumption in ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan


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