straitjacket

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A jacketlike garment with very long sleeves which can be secured in place, thus…

   A jacketlike garment with very long sleeves which can be secured in place, thus preventing the wearer from moving their arms; often used in psychiatric hospitals to prevent patients from injuring themselves or others.

   • There’s a couple of people actually wearing duct-tape straitjackets.
2. 2

   Any situation seen as confining or restricting.

   • our ever-increasing bureaucratic straitjacket of regulations
   • [I]f we remain in one discipline, we remain in a straitjacket; an adequate theory of language evolution requires a lot of interdisciplinary work.
3. 3

   To put someone into a straitjacket.

4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      To restrict the freedom of someone or something, either physically or psychologically.

      • Charles for five whole days in a Victorian topper and tailcoat when he practically had to be straitjacketted to get him into tails for a three-hour wedding?

The neighborhood

• neighborstrait-laced