• (GA) IPA: /ˈnæɹoʊ/, /ˈnɛɹoʊ/
• (RP) IPA: /ˈnæɹəʊ/

narrow (comparative narrower, superlative narrowest)

1. Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.

   a narrow hallway

2. Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.

   • The Jews were but a small nation, and confined to a narrow compass in the world.

3. (figuratively) Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.

   a narrow interpretation

4. Contracted; of limited scope; bigoted

   a narrow mind

   narrow views

5. Having a small margin or degree.

   a narrow escape

   The Republicans won by a narrow majority.

6. (dated) Limited as to means; straitened

   narrow circumstances

7. Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.

   • a very narrow and stinted charity

8. Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     But first with narrow search I must walk round / This garden, and no corner leave unspied.

9. (phonetics) 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.

• wide
• broad

• narrowly
• narrowness

• French: étroit
• German: eng, begrenzt, schmal
• Italian: stretto, angusto
• Portuguese: estreito, estreita
• Russian: у́зкий
• Spanish: estrecho, angosto

narrow (plural narrows)

1. (chiefly, in the plural) A narrow passage, especially a contracted part of a stream, lake, or sea; a strait connecting two bodies of water.

   the Narrows of New York harbor

   • Near the island lay on one side the jaws of a dangerous narrow.

narrow (narrows, present participle narrowing; past and past participle narrowed)

1. (transitive) To reduce in width or extent; to contract.

   We need to narrow the search.

2. (intransitive) To get narrower.

   The road narrows.

3. (of a person or eyes) To partially lower one's eyelids in a way usually taken to suggest a defensive, aggressive or penetrating look.

   He stepped in front of me, narrowing his eyes to slits.

   She wagged her finger in his face, and her eyes narrowed.

4. (knitting) To contract the size of, as a stocking, by taking two stitches into one.
5. (transitive, programming) To convert to a data type that cannot hold as many distinct values.

   Antonyms: widen

   to narrow an int variable to a short variable

• taper

• French: réduire, rétrécir
• German: einschränken,beschränken, eng, schlank, schmal
• Portuguese: estreitar
• Russian: сужа́ть
• Spanish: estrechar, angostar

• German: verengen
• Portuguese: estreitar-se
• Russian: сужа́ться
• Spanish: estrecharse