restrictive
tending or serving to restrict.
of the nature of a restriction.
expressing or implying restriction or limitation of application, as terms, expressions, etc.
Grammar. limiting the meaning of a modified element: a restrictive adjective.: Compare descriptive (def. 2b).
Origin of restrictive
1Other words from restrictive
- re·stric·tive·ly, adverb
- re·stric·tive·ness, noun
- un·re·stric·tive, adjective
- un·re·stric·tive·ly, adverb
Words Nearby restrictive
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use restrictive in a sentence
At the time of our podcast recording this week, San Diego was poised to head to the most restrictive purple tier, which would tighten rules for businesses.
Even states that have been quite restrictive in how they allow people to vote understand that the pandemic has changed the game.
Why you should vote as early as possible (and how to do it) | John Kennedy | September 17, 2020 | Popular-ScienceUltimately, because the law is permissive, it is in fact highly restrictive of corporations acting fairly for all their stakeholders because it hands authority to investors and financial markets for corporate control.
50 years later, Milton Friedman’s shareholder doctrine is dead | jakemeth | September 13, 2020 | FortuneIt could be one of the most restrictive internet laws in the world.
Brazil’s “fake news” bill won’t solve its misinformation problem | Amy Nordrum | September 10, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewNo one on earth has been spared from more restrictive international travel.
These are the countries Americans can travel to right now without a visa | Youyou Zhou | September 4, 2020 | Quartz
Missouri now has the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
Will it be difficult to jump back into that restrictive form of writing?
David Cronenberg: Why Frustrated Novelists Hate the Screenplay | Craig Hubert | October 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe also supported restrictive measures on abortion as a state legislator in Massachusetts.
The Republican War on Women Continues, Just More Quietly | Eleanor Clift | October 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAt least 180 restrictive bills have been introduced in 41 states and some are still pending.
In the meantime, Iranian women have to cope with highly restrictive rules and regulations.
Operation Wholesome Sea: Iran Coast Guard Forces Women Off Beaches | IranWire | May 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSome of its provisions were unusually restrictive, and the penalty of treason was attached to the breach of any of them.
The Political History of England - Vol. X. | William HuntThere is a certain restrictive bar that interposes when there is this intimacy of family connections.
The Wasted Generation | Owen JohnsonThese, goaded by restrictive union practices, notably the closed shop, appealed to the courts for relief.
A History of Trade Unionism in the United States | Selig PerlmanNo ameliorative, no palliative, no restrictive, no remedial measure will avail.
The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind | Herbert George WellsThe restrictive policy won by no means universal assent in the mother country.
The Old Northwest | Frederic Austin Ogg
British Dictionary definitions for restrictive
/ (rɪˈstrɪktɪv) /
restricting or tending to restrict
grammar denoting a relative clause or phrase that restricts the number of possible referents of its antecedent. The relative clause in Americans who live in New York is restrictive; the relative clause in Americans, who are generally extrovert, is nonrestrictive
Derived forms of restrictive
- restrictively, adverb
- restrictiveness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Browse