Baretti: A dictionary of the English and Italian languages
Strétta, s. f.
1. a squeezing, pressing, squeeze;2. crowd, throng. Dar la —, to put to flight;3. stress, distress, oppression; 4. scarcity, penury, extreme want. Essere alle strette, to be in straitened circumstances; to be on the point of closing a bargain. — di spalle, a shrugging up of the shoulders contemptuously. — di neve, a weight or quantity of snow; 5. a strait, defile.
Florio: a worlde of wordes, or most copious, dictionarie in Italian and English
stretta: a gird, a pinch, a wrench, a twinge, a gripe, a clinch. Also a suddaine feare. Also a narrow lane or streete. Also a narrow allie or close walke. Also a Dace or as some thinke a Mullet-fish. Vsed also for any necessilie, hard pinch, distresse, needie plunge, peck of troubles. Also a throng, a croud, or presse of people. Also as Strétto, the Participle.
