straighten out

phrasal verb

straightened out; straightening out; straightens out

1

: to make (something) straight or to become straight

You need to straighten out your legs for this stretch.

The river curves and then straightens out again.

2

: to make (something) organized or tidy : to put (something) in order

He took time to straighten out the papers on his desk.

3

: to deal with (something) successfully

I need more time to straighten out my problems.

4

: to improve in behavior or condition or to cause (someone or something) to improve in behavior or condition

He straightened out after joining the army.

The problem will not straighten out on its own.

You need to straighten your life out.

Her parents sent her to boarding school to straighten her out.

Examples of straighten out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Clips of the footage, which was posted online by BBC, showed the bride making her way into the chapel arm-in-arm with her father and her wedding party straightening out her dress. —Kimberlee Speakman, People.com, 16 Jan. 2025

But when Thompson arrived to the building to straighten out the disagreement, Roundtree and other women were swinging a golf club and a sock filled with locks, ready for a fight, according to the woman and her attorney, Mario Gallucci. —Elizabeth Keogh, New York Daily News, 13 Jan. 2025

Ferrari overhauled its design for 2024 and appears to have straightened out some of the kinks. —Madeline Coleman, The Athletic, 25 Apr. 2024

After the weekly meetings, Dev would walk around Ballard Estate to straighten out his back. —Kanak Kapur, The New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2025