↔️ Becoming thinner 🛤️ Getting thinner 🚧 More limited

narrowing

6.0

Becoming more limited and reducing people's choices or freedoms

adjective
/ˈnɛroʊɪŋ/

: restricción

Her narrowing options forced her to make a quick decision.

Examples

As the deadline approached, the team's narrowing focus on the project intensified.
While we are a long way from inversion, the narrowing curves are indicative of an unhealthy outlook.
The narrowing streets made it difficult for large vehicles to pass through.

Synonyms

limited

vsnarrowing

97 1.9

Having only a small, specific role in an activity

describes an active process of becoming less open or flexible

restrictive

vsnarrowing

52 4.7

Limits what people can do by rules or laws

emphasizes the change toward being less open or flexible

limiting

vsnarrowing

3 3.5

Keeping someone or something from having full freedom and many choices

describes that same reduction but as an overall process

confining

vsnarrowing

1 5.6

That limits someone's freedom or ability to move

covers broader circumstances becoming less open rather than physical enclosure

constricting

vsnarrowing

1 6.5

Causes people to feel limited and unable to act freely

focuses on conditions becoming generally less open or flexible

constrictive

vsnarrowing

1 7.1

Making people or groups have less freedom to grow

describes the general process of becoming less open or flexible

constraining

vsnarrowing

1 6.3

Makes someone or something unable to act freely

is about circumstances becoming more limited rather than personal rules

constricted

vsnarrowing

5.2

Made narrower or tighter by pressure

refers more generally to things or conditions becoming less flexible

narrowed

vsnarrowing

2.7

Made smaller in width, size, or range

focuses on limiting openness or flexibility rather than only physical size

Antonyms

to expand

805 2.5

To grow larger in size, amount, or importance

How Restrictive

tightening

31 3.3

limiting

3 3.5

narrowing

6.0

broadening

3 3.5

loosening

6 3.4

Surface Forms

narrowing positive

Morphology

narrowing = narrow (transparent) = narrow + ing

Derived from the verb 'narrow' with the present-participle '-ing'; the figurative sense 'becoming more limited/restricting' is directly related to 'narrow'.

Etymology

The adjective narrowing also uses the idea of being 'tight' from old English nearu to talk about limits. A helpful way to remember the figurative meaning is to imagine choices or freedoms being squeezed smaller, so a narrowing policy or rule makes things more limited.