straighten outverb

• 1

  To make straight.

  • Straighten out your necktie and comb your hair.
  • "Then bring them to me," she said. And when the tinsmiths came, bringing with them all their tools in baskets, she inquired, "Can you straighten out those dents in the Tin Woodman, and bend him back into shape again, and solder him together where he is broken?"
• 2

  To correct or rectify.

  • I hope they can straighten out the problem with my bill soon.
• 3

  To eliminate confusion from or concerning.

  • As soon as I straighten out which of the twins is which, I'll start calling them by their names.
  • “What have they done to stir him up?” “It's this book Daddy wrote about preparatory schools. He wrote a book about preparatory schools. Did you know he had written a book about preparatory schools?” “Hadn't an inkling. Nobody tells me anything.” “Well, he wrote this book about preparatory schools. It was about preparatory schools.” “About preparatory schools, was it?” “Yes, about preparatory schools.” “Thank God we've got that straightened out at last. I had a feeling we should get somewhere if we dug long enough. And – ?”
• 4

  To correct; to stop doing something wrong.

  • It is not enough to stand aside and hope problems straighten out on their own.
• 5

  To tidy, neaten, or organize.

• 6

  To be made a made man in a Mafia organization.

• 7

  informalTo make heterosexual.

  • Rather superficial is the "medical" essay by Richard Green, who has previously been known as the psychologist who tortured boys with the "sissy syndrome." He's just completed a degree in law at Yale (presumably he's preparing for all the malpractice suits from parents who paid him to "straighten out" their boys, boys who have found the clone look very fashionable in the '80s)
  • This is "straightened out" version of Lilian Hellman's lesbian-oriented melodramatic/tragic play. In Hellman's play, a student falsely accuses two teachers of being a lesbian couple, which sends the local town into a rage. In this movie version, the kid accuses the women of a different "vice", because the producers didn't think the movie-going public was ready for a film about lesbianism.