strait-laced
Americanadjective
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excessively strict in conduct or morality; puritanical; prudish.
strait-laced censors.
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tightly laced, as a bodice.
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wearing tightly laced garments.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of strait-laced
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50
Explanation
To be strait-laced is to be extremely strict and uptight. Your strait-laced cousin won't be interested in joining the rest of your family in an impromptu dance party. If you know anyone who's extremely prim and proper, you can describe them as strait-laced. This adjective originally described overly tight clothing, particularly women's stays or bodices. The now obsolete adjective strait meant "narrow or cramped" or "strict," but because it's become unfamiliar today, strait-laced can also be spelled straight-laced.
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.
"Next to the vomiting, gurning, maniacally grinning Keaton, she can’t help but seem a little bland and strait-laced."
From BBC • Sep. 9, 2024
But the very existence of the film, which is loosely based on a seemingly strait-laced community college instructor who moonlighted as a fake assassin for the Houston police, proves just how much they fascinate us.
From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2024
In contrast to strait-laced Seattle, where suds stopped flowing at 2 a.m. and never on Sundays, Georgetown’s unregulated taverns, eateries and roadhouses were open round-the-clock, serving laborers the hoppy product of their labors.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 7, 2023
Both Republican and Democratic politicos and appointees described him as a strait-laced administrator who played it by the book.
From Washington Post • Mar. 13, 2023
It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over everything for better preservation.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
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.
