as in to unbend
to cause to follow a line that is without bends or curls
straighten that extension cord—it should be just long enough to reach the wall outlet
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Recent Examples of straighten
Add the drops: Gently pull the outside of your ear back and up to straighten the ear canal.
—
Sarah Hudgens, Health, 31 July 2025
But surely Rembrandt shared with Spinoza at a minimum the sense that there’s nobody here to straighten things out but us.
—Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 19 July 2025
The project would straighten I-90 where a toll plaza used to be, reconnect Allston with the Charles River waterfront, upgrade the Paul Dudley White Path, see the Allston Viaduct removed, and create an MBTA West Station to provide rail access from central and Western Massachusetts.
—Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald, 10 July 2025
The 16-year-old model — whose father is actor Liev Schreiber — also opted for a glowy complexion and wore her blonde hair straightened and parted down the middle.
—Starr Bowenbank, People.com, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for straighten
Sarah Hudgens, Health, 31 July 2025
But surely Rembrandt shared with Spinoza at a minimum the sense that there’s nobody here to straighten things out but us.
—Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 19 July 2025
The project would straighten I-90 where a toll plaza used to be, reconnect Allston with the Charles River waterfront, upgrade the Paul Dudley White Path, see the Allston Viaduct removed, and create an MBTA West Station to provide rail access from central and Western Massachusetts.
—Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald, 10 July 2025
The 16-year-old model — whose father is actor Liev Schreiber — also opted for a glowy complexion and wore her blonde hair straightened and parted down the middle.
—Starr Bowenbank, People.com, 9 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for straighten
Recent Examples of Synonyms for straighten
Verb
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The social hierarchy is unbending, but Flora knows she is destined for something greater, even though this puts her at odds with her superiors.—
Vogue,
Vogue,
29 July 2025
-
The paper watch sensors survived preliminary stress testing that involved bending and unbending for 300 cycles.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
9 Jan. 2017
Verb
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One fall day in 1856, a family of Eastern gray squirrels in rural New York uncurled from a cozy nest in a chestnut tree, looked around, and joined half a billion other squirrels on a multi-state walkabout.—
Christine Peterson,
Vox,
23 Dec. 2024
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Exhale, lower the bridge down, then uncurl the trunk to bring the right hip and shoulder back to the ground.—
Jen Murphy,
WSJ,
16 June 2022
Cite this Entry
“Straighten.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/straighten. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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