inhibited
AmericanOther Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inhibited
First recorded in 1960–65; inhibit + -ed 2 ( def. )
Explanation
If something is inhibited it's held back or kept from doing something. An inhibited infection is kept from spreading, possibly by antibiotics. We often use the word inhibited to describe someone’s behavior, especially if that person is self-conscious about doing something, but it also describes the simple fact of being restrained. If you washed your pants in hot water and they shrank and you could just barely squeeze them on, your movement would be inhibited. The Latin root of inhibited is inhibere, "to hold in or hold back."
Vocabulary lists containing inhibited
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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Lesson 4
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"Love's Vocabulary" by Diane Ackerman
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Inhibited and shy, Tony has "a childish and luminous beauty" that makes him a success with adults, but a failure in the uncompromising world of his school fellows.
From Time Magazine Archive
Inhibited by the need for keeping professional secrets from criminals, officers of the law usually write books that have all the bad features of detective stories and none of their ingenuity.
From Time Magazine Archive
Inhibited and locked away, it is not fed into the engine, and we feel exactly as though it were nil.
From Outwitting Our Nerves A Primer of Psychotherapy by Jackson, Josephine A.
Tendencies, Inhibited and uninhibited. 72-3, 77-8, 94, 115-16, 125-26. union, 37-8.
From Group Psychology and The Analysis of The Ego by Freud, Sigmund
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
