strait-lace
Americanverb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of strait-lace
First recorded in 1630–40; back formation from strait-laced
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At 27, with nearly zero name recognition, he horrified his then-agent by turning down a $10,000-a-week TV gig as a strait-laced psychiatrist to do a Mike Nichols theater production for just $110.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2025
In an interview 25 years ago with the German newspaper Tagesspiegel he laid claim to a wilder youth than his strait-laced CV might suggest.
From BBC ● Feb. 8, 2025
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
Although a strait-laced Presbyterian and stodgy academic, Wilson immediately bonded with Edith, 16 years his junior, finding her beautiful, stylish, charming and vivacious.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 29, 2023
It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over everything for better preservation.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
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
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
The very pattern of young girls is bound by a strait-lacing conventionality.
From Atlantic Classics, Second Series by Addams, Jane
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.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
