restraint

[ri-streynt]

noun

1. a restraining action or influence.

   freedom from restraint.

2. Sometimes restraints. a means of or device for restraining, as a harness for the body.

3. the act of restraining, holding back, controlling, or checking.

4. the state or fact of being restrained; restrained; deprivation of liberty; confinement.

   Synonyms: incarceration, imprisonment, restriction, circumscription
   Antonyms: liberty

5. constraint or reserve in feelings, behavior, etc.

restraint

/ rɪˈstreɪnt /

noun

1. the ability to control or moderate one's impulses, passions, etc

   to show restraint

2. the act of restraining or the state of being restrained

3. something that restrains; restriction

Other Word Forms

• overrestraint noun
• prerestraint noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of restraint¹

1350–1400; Middle English restreinte < Middle French restrainte, noun use of feminine past participle of restraindre to restrain

Word History and Origins

Origin of restraint¹

C15: from Old French restreinte , from restreindre to _restrain

Example Sentences

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid dissented from the October cut in favor of no change, while Boston Fed President Susan Collins said last week that continued slight restraint was appropriate.

Read more on Barron's

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid dissented from the October cut in favor of no change, while Boston Fed President Susan Collins said last week that continued slight restraint was appropriate.

Read more on Barron's

Tempering democratic rhetoric with aristocratic restraint, he rises above the divisions of debate to deliver the funeral oration when Athens buries its dead sons in the war’s first winter.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Here, the film’s unflinching energy — influenced by Ingmar Bergman’s “Autumn Sonata” — shifts; the camera shakes free from restraint before pulling back to reveal them small against the empty wilderness.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Some might see that as deflection, but in an era of corporate activism it is restraint deserving of praise.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• ban 
• constraint 
• curb 
• embargo 
• limit 
• prohibition 
• reduction 
• restriction