means A narrows is a constricted stretch of water — a channel, strait, or river passage where the banks pinch close together and the current quickens.

from From Old English 'nearu,' meaning tight, cramped, or constricted — the same root that gives us 'narrow.' Used as a noun for a confined waterway, it often appears pluralized as 'the Narrows,' a sailor's plain naming for any place a ship must thread carefully. Distantly related to old Germanic words for binding or tightness, the kind of squeeze you feel in your chest as much as in a channel.