strait-laced

or straight-laced

[ streyt-leyst ]
See synonyms for strait-laced on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. excessively strict in conduct or morality; puritanical; prudish: strait-laced censors.

  2. tightly laced, as a bodice.

  1. wearing tightly laced garments.

Origin of strait-laced

1
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

Other words from strait-laced

  • strait-lac·ed·ly [streyt-ley-sid-lee, -leyst-lee], /ˈstreɪtˈleɪ sɪd li, -ˈleɪst li/, adverb
  • strait-lac·ed·ness, noun

Words Nearby strait-laced

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use strait-laced in a sentence

  • Albert took the throne in July 2005 after the death of his strait-laced father, Prince Rainier.

  • There was in society, though it was not strait-laced or puritanical, a general standard of "good form."

    The English Novel | George Saintsbury
  • I have asked two gentlemen to dinner; that will be livelier, not so strait-laced; we can laugh and enjoy ourselves.

  • He had taken the pledge from Father Mathew before he left Ireland, and had kept it faithfully; but he was not strait-laced.

    The Book of the Bush | George Dunderdale
  • Mr Taylor's 'solicitous and premeditated formalism' of poetical doctrine is, it must be confessed, a little too strait-laced.

  • She stopped on the path outside the decorous strait-laced houses and put her cool gloved hand up to her burning cheek.

    The Cathedral | Sir Hugh Walpole

British Dictionary definitions for strait-laced

strait-laced

adjective
  1. prudish or puritanical

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