<adj.all> a narrow bridge a narrow line across the page
lacking tolerance or flexibility or breadth of view
<adj.all> a brilliant but narrow-minded judge narrow opinions
very limited in degree
<adj.all> won by a narrow margin a narrow escape
limited in size or scope
<adj.all> the narrow sense of a word
characterized by painstaking care and detailed examination
<adj.all> a minute inspection of the grounds a narrow scrutiny an exact and minute report
Narrow \Nar"row\, 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. --Gladstone.
Narrow \Nar"row\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Narrowed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Narrowing}.] [AS. nearwian.] 1. To lessen the breadth of; to contract; to draw into a smaller compass; to reduce the width or extent of. --Sir W. Temple.
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. --I. Watts.
3. (Knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
Narrow \Nar"row\ (n[a^]r"r[-o]), a. [Compar. {Narrower} (n[a^]r"r[-o]*[~e]r); superl. {Narrowest}.] [OE. narwe, naru, AS. nearu; akin to OS. naru, naro.] 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. --Shak.
2. Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world. --Bp. Wilkins.
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. --Dryden.
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.'' --Macaulay.
6. Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
A very narrow and stinted charity. --Smalridge.
7. Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
But first with narrow search I must walk round This garden, and no corner leave unspied. --Milton.
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; as [=e] ([=e]ve) and [=oo] (f[=oo]d), etc., from [i^] ([i^]ll) and [oo^] (f[oo^]t), etc. See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect]13.
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.
Narrow \Nar"row\, 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. --Farrier's Dict.
3. (Knitting) To contract the size of a stocking or other knit article, by taking two stitches into one.
Convoys of army trucks spew black smoke along the narrow roads.
'We need to think very carefully before we encourage people to specialise on a narrow front,' he said. Rightwing educationalists remained unhappy.
Japanese officials urged the U.S. to help narrow international trade imbalances by curbing excessive consumer demand and expanding production capacity.
Miles of absorbent boom contained nearly all the oil in the narrow channel and spared the Shooters Island bird sanctuary, Coast Guard officials said.
Without its strong-willed chief, the company could narrow its focus, lower its debts, cut the dividend, or be acquired in whole or in part.
It smelled delicious and looked wonderful. She had cut it like this for practical reasons - in order to fit the narrow drawer-like oven at the bottom of her wood- burning stove.
Ikea's market is crowded, too, with such well-managed competitors as Crate & Barrel and Pier 1. "Their market is finite because it is so narrow," says Mr. Bradley of Levitz Furniture.
The narrow margin of Wednesday's vote demonstrated that amnesty for those who came to this country illegally remains an emotional issue.
The company said it expects those losses to narrow as a result of the planned layoffs, discontinued operations, post-Gulf war travel, and lower fuel prices.
It also was the first serious political setback for Roh since he took office on Feb. 25 with a narrow victory in December's presidential elections.
Giants owner Bob Lurie has said since the early 1980s that he wanted to leave Candlestick, which has narrow aisles, bad weather and parking and access problems.
But the RJR Nabisco Inc. unit continues to walk a narrow line between publishing its research and promoting its product as a safer cigarette.
Gold and silver prices traded within a narrow range on the Comex, with prices getting a minor boost from a weaker dollar, Sloane said.
The line between a profitable and an unprofitable week can be narrow.
The market traded in a relatively narrow range from a high of 19,566.01 to a low of 19,479.20. Advancing issues outnumbered declines by 541 to 432, with 206 stocks unchanged.
"I know just about where everything is - unless somebody moves it," said Beherns, who moves gracefully through the narrow and twisted passages in his workshop where the musty smell of cedar and the spicy aroma of freshly worked pine fill the air.
Thousands of books were crammed on shelves, stacked on the floor and buried under desks _ everywhere except on a narrow ribbon of linoleum that snaked through the shop's two small rooms.
Mr. Marshall, towering over his friend, looked down, hesitated, then slipped his arm around Mr. Brennan's narrow shoulders.
He manages both to relate freshly to everyone else onstage and to suggest that Hamlet's mind is always at one remove from everyone around him. Remarkably, he achieves this by working within very narrow confines.
Downed with a glass of cool Galician apple cider, they make a delicious market-morning snack. EL BOMBERO There is nothing fancy about El Bombero, a small upstairs restaurant overlooking a narrow Santiago street.
They are intended to enable schools to broaden their curriculum, and are used by the government as a reason for not reforming England's extraordinarily narrow A-level curriculum.
The men were ocupying a plant control room reachable only by way of a narrow staircase.
It favoured cyclicals and was particularly interested in those stocks which had 'consumer exposure'. AMSTERDAM finished moderately higher after moving in a narrow range.
This idea, known to generations of economics students as the axiom of 'utility maximisation', is the foundation upon which much classical economic theory is built. Anderson rejects this proposition as too narrow an explanation of human behaviour.
But each can clear only relatively narrow channels.
Already reeling from Tuesday's decline that followed news of an unexpectedly narrow March trade deficit, markets were hit with fresh waves of selling yesterday.
Officials concerned about vulnerability had been reluctant to send a carrier into the gulf, whose entrance is the narrow Strait of Hormuz.
"I started singing funny little songs, patter songs," he says. "So I started taking lessons and still do, to keep me on the straight and narrow." Even then, he was carefully cultivating his image as urban sophisticate.
The old Air Force One featured a single narrow center aisle, where VIPs had to weave their way past flight attendants, Secret Service agents and the media on their way to the lavatories.
Losses from the new Discover credit card are expected to narrow this year.