to constrain
53
5.6
- verb
- /kənˈstreɪn/
- She felt that her family's expectations would constrain her choices for a career path.
- constrain the ability
- constrain the growth
- severely constrained
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Watch on YouTubeThey constrain your ego, they constrain your powers.
- They constrain your ego, they constrain your powers.
- When people have more fear, they generally constrain their own spending.
- So like with like, how else can you significantly constrain computation, right.
- You either constrain speech by rules or by culture.
- But let's constrain the question a bit.
- What happens when you take that away and evil's not constrained and it just devolves?
- It it is less difficult in some ways to constrain it yourself down to a single problem.
- I do know that the United States everywhere is trying to stop, slow, constrain and constrict China.
- to make competition strong enough to really constrain healthcare spending is now a much steeper road.
- We wanted to frighten them, to constrain or deter the United States with respect to Cuba.
- So the Western pressure has been a very effective tool to constrain Kabila.
- Openness to experience, they don't think is divergently, and their conscientiousness tends to constrain their creativity.
- It will lift the guilt from them or lift the burden of them being constrained by this hatred for somebody.
- Climate markets could also not constrain that.
- And I think we need to, I think, you know, you can't let the budget constrain your creativity.
Examples
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He wanted to make sure that we didn't bring in a whole new set of regulations to constrain the financial sector.
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All these measures will never be enough to substantially constrain the growth of health-care costs on their own.
Academic text (2011) -
That can help constrain their search for a solution.
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When people have more fear, they generally constrain their own spending.
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You either constrain speech by rules or by culture.
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But let's constrain the question a bit.
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In other words, the default is that policies to constrain cost growth and improve quality will take effect.
Academic text (2011) -
In the past decade, progress has been further constrained by an acute economic crisis.
Academic text (1990) -
As water supplies become constrained, science can play an important role in managing water conflicts.
Academic text (2011) -
Indeed, intensive labor demand for harvesting was the key factor that constrained traditional scales of production.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
∞
1.9
To stop yourself from showing a feeling or reaction
465
2.1
To control how much or how often something happens
247
4.8
Force someone to do something or make them feel they must
233
4.6
Hold a person or thing so it cannot move freely
188
3.1
Limit how much people can use or access something
111
4.2
Keep someone or something within limits, for example in a small space
88
3.2
To keep something low and stop it from getting bigger
74
3.5
To limit or control something to stop it getting worse
51
4.6
To keep someone or something under control, for example by limiting spending
31
4.7
To limit someone's freedom because they have responsibilities
19
6.2
To restrain someone with chains or limit their freedom
16
4.7
To stop a person or thing from moving, acting freely and making choices
14
5.3
Take strong action to stop something bad or illegal
14
4.8
Stop someone from acting or making decisions
6
8.1
To keep something within certain limits
6
7.6
To make it difficult for someone or something to act
1
7.2
To limit someone's freedom, power, or plans
1
8.0
To stop someone completely from acting freely
Antonyms
How Restrictive
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Constrain comes from Latin parts con- meaning 'together' and stringere meaning 'to bind' or 'to draw tight', and it shares this idea with the everyday word string. So to constrain someone is like 'tying' or 'tightening' them, which explains why it means to limit or force someone by reducing their options.