STRAIGHT AND NARROW Definition & Meaning

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straight and narrow

noun

the way of virtuous or proper conduct:
After his release from prison, he resolved to follow the straight and narrow.

straight and narrow

noun

informal.
the proper, honest, and moral path of behaviour

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of straight and narrow¹

First recorded in 1945–50

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of straight and narrow¹

perhaps an alteration of strait and narrow, an allusion to Matthew 7:14: ``strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life''

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

His three-card monte skills are storied in the neighborhood, but he’s determined to proceed down the straight and narrow.

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The book charted her son’s climb to stardom and how Wallace worked to keep “her bright, precocious son on the straight and narrow.”

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Houlahan and Curtis decided to focus on oncogenes, normal genes that, when mutated, can free a cell from regulatory pathways meant to keep it on the straight and narrow.

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The entry point to superhero and anti-hero movies and TV shows is straight and narrow, in the most literal sense.

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They anchored us, raised us and kept us — or at least, tried to keep me — on the straight and narrow.”

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