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

A undercover Panorama reporter filmed staff at the Edenfield Centre - one of the UK's biggest mental health hospitals - using restraint inappropriately and patients enduring long periods of seclusion in small, bare rooms.

Read more on BBC

The report’s principal idea — that universities should not comment on political issues unless they threaten “the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry” — read as honorable restraint in 1967.

Read more on Salon

Unlike with donated Western weapons, Ukraine faces no external restraints on how it uses homemade munitions.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

A spell built on patience, restraint and memory.

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Federal policy emphasizes workforce development, energy and manufacturing capacity, and — so far — restraint in rulemakings.

Read more on MarketWatch

Related Words

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