restrictive clause

American  

noun

Grammar.

1. a relative clause that identifies the antecedent and that is usually not set off by commas in English. In The year that just ended was bad for crops, the clause that just ended is a restrictive clause.

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Etymology

Origin of restrictive clause

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

A restrictive clause does not want to be separate from what it modifies: it wants to be one with it, to be essential to it, to identify with it totally.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 16, 2015

Georgia-born Secretary of State Dean Rusk flatly refused to sign a restrictive clause attached to the sale of the house he wanted in exclusive Spring Valley.

From Time Magazine Archive

The restrictive clause was not part of the standard printed document, but had been typed in specifically.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the restrictive clause in the territorial bills satisfied the radical Southerners as little as it pleased Douglas.

From Stephen A. Douglas A Study in American Politics by Johnson, Allen

A restrictive clause, because it restricts the meaning of the word it modifies, may not be omitted.

From Business English A Practice Book by Buhlig, Rose