1. to make narrow or restricted; to confine or limit
Usage: formal
2. to cause financial hardship or difficulty
Usage: often used in 'straitened circumstances'

Examples

• The new regulations straiten the company's ability to expand.
• Economic hardship straitens many families during recessions.
• The narrow passage straitens as you move deeper into the cave.
• Rising costs have straitened their household budget considerably.
• The family lived in straitened circumstances after losing their business.
• Budget cuts straiten the school's resources for new programs.