restraint

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Act of holding back

Nouns

1. restraint, inhibition, repression, discipline, control, check, curb, rein; limitation, restriction; prohibition; monopoly. See circumscription, limit, subjection, retention, punishment, dissuasion.

2. hindrance, confinement, durance, duress; imprisonment, incarceration, solitary confinement; isolation ward, quarantine; entombment; limbo; captivity; embargo, blockade, siege, besiegement, beleaguerment.

3. arrest, custody, keep, care, charge, ward, protection.

4. bond[s], irons, chains, pinions, gyves, fetters, shackles, manacles, handcuffs, bracelets; straitjacket; seat, shoulder, or lap belt, car seat, air bag, passive restraint; muzzle, gag, yoke, collar, halter, harness, reins; bit, brake, curb, snaffle, bridle, seine; martingale, lead; tether, hobble, picket, band, leash; bolt, bar, lock, latch; bars, prison. See closure.

5. detainee; prisoner (see prison).

Verbs

1. restrain, check, put under restraint, enthrall, enslave, restrict, contain, debar, hinder, clip one's wings; curb, control, govern, hold back, hold in, put down, hold in check or leash, harness; withhold, keep under, keep or clamp down, repress, suppress, smother, burke, pull or rein in; prohibit, inhibit, dissuade. Informal, hold one's horses, cramp one's style.

2. enchain, fasten, fetter, shackle, trammel; tie one's hands; bridle, gag, pinion, manacle, handcuff, hobble, bind, pin down, tether, picket, tie up or down, secure; moor, anchor, belay. Informal, hogtie.

3. arrest; confine; shut up, lock up, box, bottle up, cork up, seal up, hem in, bolt in, wall in, rail in; trap, bring to bay, corner; impound, pen, coop, enclose, cage; snow in. Slang, flake, roust, send up. See enclosure.

Adjectives

1. restrained, in check, constrained, pent up, jammed in, wedged in; bound; muscle-bound; icebound, snowbound, flood bank.

2. stiff, restringent, straitlaced, hidebound, reserved.

Quotations — Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless (Martin Luther King).

Antonyms, see freedom.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Control over oneself]

Syn. self-restraint, control, self-control, reserve, reticence, constraint, artistic economy, withholding, caution, coolness, forbearance, silence, secretiveness, stress repression, self-government, undemonstrativeness, stiffness, formality, abstinence, moderation, temperance, self-denial, self-repression, unnaturalness, constrained manner, inhibition, abstemiousness, abstention, self-discipline, self-censorship.

Ant. slackness, laxity, demonstrativeness.

2. [An influence that checks or hinders]

Syn. repression, deprivation, limitation, hindrance, abridgment, reduction, decrease, prohibition, confinement, check, barrier, obstacle, obstruction, restriction, bar, curb, rein, blockade, order, command, instruction, coercion, impediment, compulsion, duress, force, violence, deterrence, deterrent, discipline, assignment, definition, prescription, moderation, tempering, qualifying, lid*; see also limitation 1 , 2 .

Ant. liberty*, license, incitement.

3. [A device that restrains; often plural ]

Syn. bonds, fetters, straitjacket; see chains , handcuffs .

III

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The act of limiting or condition of being limited: circumscription, confinement, constraint, limitation, restriction. See LIMITED. 2. Something that limits or restricts: check, circumscription, constraint, cramp2, curb, inhibition, limit, limitation, restriction, stricture, trammel. See LIMITED. 3. An instrument or means of restraining: bit2, brake, bridle, leash, snaffle. See RESTRAINT. 4. Something that physically confines the legs or arms: bond, chain (used in plural), fetter, handcuff (often used in plural), hobble, iron (used in plural), manacle, shackle. Archaic: gyve. See FREE. 5. The keeping of one's thoughts and emotions to oneself: control, reserve, reticence, self-control, self-restraint, taciturnity, uncommunicativeness. See RESTRAINT.