a straight (= an unsmiling) face; straight (or straight-out = outright, thorough; straight up and down (in the straight, or on the straight) = plain, honest, free from crookedness of all kinds; out of the straight = dishonest, crooked.
1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 88. I'm a straight-spoken kind o' creetur, That blurts right out what's in his head.
1856. New York Courier, Sept. In the Presidential contest of 1844, no man was more fierce in his hostility to Henry Clay than the present candidate of the straight Whigs for the Vice-Presidency.
1872. New York Tribune, 7 Mar. When . . . Blair . . . declared, in a speech from the steps of the Manhattan Club, that the main plank in the Democratic platform was whiskey straight, he probably shocked a few of his more orthodox and respectable hearers.
1886. Fort. Rev., n.s., xxxix. 76. Dissipating their rare and precious cash on whiskey straight in the ever-recurring bar-rooms.
1886. St James's Gaz., 11 Nov. 'The husband of Lady Usk, a virtuous lady, who, as we are frequently told, is perfectly straight and all that sort of thing.'
1887. Referee, 17 Ap. 'But going to first principles, nothing can be straighter or more likely to work to an employer's interest than for his jockey to back his own mount.'
1872. Nation, 22 Aug., 113. Other straight-outs, as they call themselves . . . cannot take Grant and the Republicans. Ibid. (1888), 6 Dec, 459. He shows himself to be a man of wide reading, a pretty straight thinker, and a lively and independent critic.
1891. Gould, Double Event, 22. He's got the straight griff for something.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 9. 'If that isn't a good 'un,' the bookie cried, 'I'll forfeit a fiver, straight.'
1901. Free Lance, 30 Nov., 217. 1. Uncommonly sharp sons, who, if they live, and run straight, may get into the Cabinet or do anything else.
1902. Lynch, High Stakes, xxix. When he had me locked in with him he gave me the straight tip.
1903. Kennedy, Sailor Tramp, xix. What do I know about him? Why that he's all right. That he's straight goods.
In the straight, adv. phr. (common).—Nearing the end; within sight of a finish; orig. a racing term.
1903. T. P.'s Weekly, 2 Jan., 248. 1. Good. I'm in the straight now . . . Thank Heaven that's done.
Straight as a pound of Candles (or as a loon's leg), adv. phr. (common).—As honest as may be. Also 'as straight as the backbone of a herring (Ray), as a die, arrow,' etc.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xiii. My hair . . . hung down upon my shoulders, as lank and straight as a pound of candles.
1865. Downing, Letters, 42. They were puzzled with the accounts; but I saw through it in a minit, and made it all as straight as a loon's leg.
Straight! intj. (common).—Fact! Honest Injun!
1890. Chevalier, Coster's Courtship. Straight! ses I, I'm on the job for better or for wuss.
Straight-laced, adj. phr. (B. E.
and Grose).—'Precise, squeemish,
puritanical, nice.'
Strain, verb. (venery).—To
copulate: see Ride.
1383. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, (Tyrwhitt), 9627. 'Merchant's Tale.' He that night in armes wold hire streine.
1601. Shakspeare, Hen. VIII., iv. 1. Our King has all the Indies in his arms, And more and richer when he strains that lady.
To strain hard, verb. phr. (B. E.)—'To ly heavily.'
