strait-lace

American  

[streyt-leys] / ˈstreɪtˌleɪs /

verb (used with object)

strait-laced, strait-lacing

1. to bind, confine, or restrain with or as if with laces.

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Etymology

Origin of strait-lace

First recorded in 1630–40; back formation from strait-laced

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

strait-laced strait-lacing

"Next to the vomiting, gurning, maniacally grinning Keaton, she can’t help but seem a little bland and strait-laced."

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2024

That article traced her journey from childhood as a male in New York’s strait-laced Westchester County to her decision to transition.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2024

Last year, they were the strait-laced girl who had detailed notes, flash cards and pens for the borrowing; this year, the burnout who shows up at the end and aces the final?

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2023

On several occasions, CNN’s strait-laced daytime shows, airing at off-hours like noon and 1 p.m., garnered bigger audiences than the new nighttime offerings.

From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2023

I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles

Depend upon it, it is a fiction created either by papa's hopes or Philip's self-complacency, or else the unfortunate youth must have been brought very low by strait-lacing and milk-and-water.'

From The Heir of Redclyffe by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

Alas! if we may use a homely phrase, many are the victims to strait-lacing, both of stays and conscience!

From The Buccaneer A Tale by Hall, S. C., Mrs.

The very pattern of young girls is bound by a strait-lacing conventionality.

From Atlantic Classics, Second Series by Addams, Jane

Such was the strait-lacing in which the good man was forever trying to compress his genial, buoyant, and grateful nature.—Scott came again and again; and Wordsworth and Southey met to do him honor.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 43, May, 1861 Creator by Various